Clos de la Roche, Domaine Dujac 2006

Frasca Food & Wine acticle on jebdunnuck.comAs to the wine, we started with glasses of the latest release from Krug. Traci loves a richer style of Champagne and this was beautiful. I was craving a solid Burgundy for a change of pace, and the 2006 Dujac Clos de la Roche knocked it out of the park. Still incredibly youthful, it blossomed over the course of the evening and has loads of spice and forest floor characteristics paired with beautiful fruit. It certainly has a vibrant, almost crunchy style, yet the mid-palate is terrific, it’s flawlessly balanced, has ample ripeness, and is just a joy to drink. It’s just now at the early stages of maturity yet has another 15-20 years, if not more, of longevity ahead of it. I’d certainly be thrilled with bottles in the cellar.

The Dujac 2006 Clos de la Roche is a dark, brooding Pinot no less complex or long than its Clos St.-Denis sibling. Here, the animal side is a gamey, faintly sweaty beast; the fruits dark and as bitter as they are sweet; and the sense of chocolate-like richness remarkable in the context of the vintage. And rather than an energetic sense of interplay, this conveys a layering of fruit, meat, and stony, saline mineral elements, supported by tactile viscosity and a sappy sense of almost indelible cling. Lucky are those who can follow and compare both of these wines over the next dozen years.

Here there is terrific aromatic depth with a gorgeous mix of red and dark berry fruit, spice, earth, game, underbrush and a subtle minerality that can also be found on the rich, full, sweet and intense big-bodied flavors brimming with buckets of dry extract on the mouth coating, long, powerful and utterly stunning finish. This is a big 2006 yet the focus, balance and sense of harmony are riveting.