2023 Puligny Montrachet Les Combettes

The 2023 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes was picked a week later, and it's richer and fuller than the Folatières, unwinding in the glass with a gently reductive bouquet of orange zest, flowers and peach. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered, it's fleshy and textural, with lively acids and a gently exotic finish. Domaine Dujac's 2023 harvest began with Les Folatières on September 1, followed by a five-day pause before resuming on September 6. As elsewhere, yields were generous, and alcohol levels range between 13.3% and 14%. The domaine's more spacious and better temperature-controlled new winery was surely an asset, and the 2023s are shaping up nicely, offering up expressive fruit as well as plenty of underlying structure. Readers, of course, will be familiar with the outlines of the Dujac approach to producing red Burgundy: organic farming, fermentation with a predominance of whole clusters (with some 20% to 30% destemmed this year) and élevage in barrels largely sourced from Tonnellerie Rémond.

The 2023 Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes 1er Cru comes from older vines than the Les Folatières. It has a touch of crushed stone on the nose, but it doesn't really engage like the 2022 last year. Likewise, this sample lacks a bit of length and is missing a bit of horsepower compared to the previous vintage.

There were more millerand grapes here compared to Les Folatières. Medium yellow in colour, with a ripe buttery nose, yet with better tension to the fruit behind. Some acidity is showing and the Combettes is a little drier at the finish.