An Impassioned Response to New World Pinot

Burgundians just won’t let makers of New World pinot noir and chardonnay have it all their own way. While only a significant generational change in approach will preserve the stature of some Burgundian domaines, a surprising number have refocused their energies towards their vineyards and cellars, putting to question the views of their fathers and grandfathers. Although some Burgundians still remain buoyed by constantly high prices and simply argue that if they don’t put up their prices as well they’ll just look second-rate, a deep emotional attachment towards their own wines is rekindling in the hearts and minds of a new generation of Burgundian grower and maker.

Jacques Seysses, owner and viticulteur of Domaine Dujac, says he simply wants to make wine he finds charming and pleasurable. ‘Burgundy is in a wonderful period’, he says. ‘There are lots of young guys here full of passion and who love wine, many more than ever before. Guys like Christophe Roumier, Roman Lignier and Jean-Louis Amiot who share equipment and ideas. With passion, the domaine of Roumier has gone from good to great.’
You can almost feel his conviction when Seysses talks about the wines whose making he directs, although he happily admits that much of what he does is against the present trends. ‘I am looking for balance and complexity. I’m not worried if my wine has less colour and I’m not worried about pH.’ No wines leaves Dujac with a pH under what academics consider a dangerously high and short-lived level of 3.7. ‘Titratable acidity is much more important’, says Seysses. ‘We harvest on tannin ripeness. I don’t want to feel the tannins, but they should be part of the game. If a wine tastes tannic it might really be just because of a lack of fat.’

Seysses is a comparatively recent arrival into Burgundy. After two vintages at the Domaine Pousse d’Or in Volnay he bought the 4.5 ha Domaine Graillet in Morey-St-Denis in 1968. Back then, a mere handful of makers estate-bottled their wines. Seysses’ later purchases have added to his area under vine, presently standing at 11.2 ha.

Constantly seeking to get the most from his vineyards, Seysses has been at the forefront of the use of clones selected for earlier, riper and more consistent yields and smaller bunches and berries. ‘There’s not a single estate in Burgundy with more clones than us’, he says. While old established vineyards with a random mix of clones in a selection massale can produce anything between nil and fifteen bunches per vine, Seysses’ target is just six. But clones are no automatic guarantee of quality and Seysses has the view that certain growers aren’t prepared to spend enough time to control the excessive vigour of many. ‘Many of the French wine press taste the wines of these people and then criticise the concept of clonal selection afterwards.’
Furthermore, Seysses believes it essential to leave a green cover between the rows to reduce vigour. He thins the young buds in May when they first develop and then performs a green harvest at veraison, around the 1st of August. With better viticulture and by hand selecting grapes in the vineyard, he’s convinced he can even out the seasons and that the inconsistencies to have plagued Burgundian red wine from year to year are almost a thing of the past.

One of Seysses’ winemaking signatures is that he has always left 100 of the stems in the ferment, choosing to ferment whole bunches. ‘I’d be happy to destem without crushing, but I want to avoid crushing’, he says. ‘If I leave whole bunches, I get softer tannins. It doesn’t depend on the ripeness of the stem, for in my experience the stems absorb; they don’t give. So we lose colour, acidity and hard tannins. We also lose 0.3 alcohol to the stems.’ On the other hand, Seysses’ wines clearly benefit from the additional complexity derived from 4-5 days of intracellular fermentation of whole berries.

Since they disperse heat, stems help to provide a natural control of temperature during fermentation, slowing it down. There’s never any need at Dujac to cool. A light chapitalisation towards the later stages extends the process, contributing more glycerol and the fatty mouthfeel so integral to the luxuriant charm and texture integral to Seysses’ image of a perfect red Burgundy.

Seysses has reneged on his earlier practice of completing a saignee, concentrating fruit and running some juice off skins before fermentation, since he now feels it unbalances a wine. He has always preferred only lightly toasted oak to avoid what he describes as the ‘hard, charry flavours’ found in many contemporary pinot noirs.

The outcome of Seysses’ approach is a characteristically paler Burgundy than is considered usual, but a wine of joyous suppleness and intensity. From cask, the 1997 reds uniformly reveal a clarity and brightness of typically red berry flavours and nuts, with a typically willowy and restrained presence in the mouth. In bottle, the 1996 wines open up with deeper, darker fruits and a charming sweetness and balance of oak.

Generously acknowledging the detailed attention paid by his vineyard manager, Christophe Morin, Seysses again stresses the importance of painstaking, labour-intensive work in the vineyard and says he aims to become as organic as possible. Please login to post comment