1996 Clos St Denis

This bright ruby-colored wine exhibits raspberries, violets, porcini mushrooms, and black cherries on the nose. Extremely well-balanced, this wine is oily-textured, rich, medium-to-full-bodied, and offers a gorgeous mouthful of sweet cherries, earth, and metallic flavors that linger on the finish amidst traces of lightly charred oak. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2006. My visit to the Domaine Dujac was perplexing. Jacques Seysses, the estate's owner and director, informed me that the 1996 vintage was defined by its low acidity. This statement was shocking to hear as I had already been tasting the vintage's wines for a few weeks (I had started at the southern extremity of the Cote d'Or and was working my way north) and everybody I had visited had expressed the contrary. Upon tasting Dujac's wines I understood his position. While 1996 reds at virtually every estate of the Cote are packed with crisp, juicy, and lively berry fruit, Dujac's are jammy, supple, and sultry - more reminiscent of 1985s or 1990s than 1996s. The hundreds of 1996s I tasted indicate that the Seysses are wrong in their assessment of the vintage as a whole, but simply reflects the character of their estate's wines. Seysses believes, and I concur, that his 1995s are more concentrated and structured - and will therefore require more cellaring - than his 1996s. The estate's yields were high in 1996 (almost fifty percent higher than in 1995), ranging from 48 hectoliters/hectare in the village appellations to 42 h/h for the grand crus, yet sugar levels were slightly higher than in 1995. Importer: Wilson-Daniels, St. Helena, CA; tel. (707) 963-9661.

Very elegant red and black fruits but the barely medium weight flavors are quite light. While the '96 Clos St. Denis is certainly very pretty, this is more about grand cru finesse but premier cru weight. In short, very good but not better. Allen Meadows, Burghound, Aug, 1998