A Splendid Septet of Wines

Raymond Blake tastes seven vintages of the Burgundy premier cru, Gevrey-Chambertin 'Aux Combottes', from Domaine Dujac, owned by the Seysses family

- Raymond Blake

Saturday 2nd March 2024. A group of like-minded Burgundy lovers (for which read fanatics) gather in Dublin, Ireland for a tasting hosted by one of their number.

He calls it a 'final bottle' tasting - in other words, when he gets down to his last bottle of several different wines he assembles them for a themed tasting with friends. Previously, an array of Australian wines from Penfolds was put under the microscope, this time the focus was tighter: seven vintages of a highly-regarded Burgundy premier cru - Gevrey-Chambertin 'Aux Combottes' - all from the same producer - Domaine Dujac.

In the centuries-long history of Burgundy, Domaine Dujac is a relative newcomer, having been founded by Jacques Seysses in 1968.

The name 'Dujac' is a pun on his first name and means 'the domaine of Jacques', chosen because, he once told me, nobody could spell his surname correctly. Depending on how you look at it, his timing was terrible or excellent, for the 1968 vintage was infamously bad and prompted him to conclude that things could never get worse. Nor did they. Indeed, the trajectory since that atrocious year has been steadily upward, to the point where Dujac is now regarded as one of the finest Burgundy domaines of them all.