2012 Domaine Claude Dugat Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru

In this context, the 2012 Chapelle-Chambertin comes across as a bit burly. Firm tannins provide the backdrop for an intense, structured Burgundy that will require at least a handful of years to start softening. Black fruit, cloves, new leather, spices, smoke, licorice and tobacco all take shape in the glass. The 2012 is intense and even a bit wild at times, but it is also incredibly appealing and full of intrigue, especially for the future.

The 2012 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru, which is Dugat’s metayage, veers more towards red rather than black fruit, infused with scents of violet, cold limestone and citrus peel and later a hint of seaweed. The palate is medium-bodied with strawberry pastille and a touch of raspberry on the pure and engaging entry. The oak here, a little more vanilla than the Griotte-Chambertin, is still nicely subsumed and the satin-textured finish is long and sensual. This is quite a compelling Chapelle-Chambertin though alas, there are just 1¼ barrels this year. Six months after tasting his 2011s, I return to Claude Dugat to taste through his 2012s that he mentioned would soon be bottled. There was no point in retreading over the travails of the growing season. Claude said that he commenced the harvest on 17 or 18 September (he could not remember exactly which) and chaptalized the wines up to about half a degree. This was a splendid array of wines. Occasionally I feel that there could be a preponderance of new oak that can submerge the terroir, but in 2012 I discerned the oak to be beautifully assimilated and indeed, this was one of the finest set of wines I have tasted at the domaine since I first visited to sample Claude’s 2005s. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, New York City; tel. (212) 239-1275.