Established in 1955 by Claude and Marie-Thérèse Dugat, Domaine Claude Dugat is widely considered to be one of Gevrey-Chambertin’s top producers. This small, family-owned domaine is currently run by Claude and Marie-Thérèse’s children, Bertrand, Laetitia and Jeanne.
Comprising just six hectares of vines, Domaine Claude Dugat practises sustainable viticulture and never uses fertilisers or herbicides. They aim to have a light touch in the vineyard, harvesting grapes when they are just ripe enough. Both ripeness and harvest date are determined solely by taste rather than lab analysis, with the wines always having a signature freshness since they never pick late. Old vines and low yields produce excellent concentration and intensity in the resulting wines.
After harvest, grapes are all 100% destemmed and fermented in concrete tanks, with gentle punch downs for optimum tannin and colour extraction. The wines are then racked into barrels for malolactic fermentation before ageing in oak for at least 12 months. They are then bottled without fining or filtering, becoming naturally clear after spending two winters in the domaine’s cellar. Domaine Claude Dugat’s Bourgogne Rouge hails from vines in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, it is essentially Gevrey in Bourgogne Rouge clothing and punches significantly above its Bourgogne appellation weight.
The vines for this Bourgogne rouge are situated in the commune of Gevrey-Chambertin, planted on clay and limestone soils and Guyot pruned. The domaine practises 'la lutte-raisonée', meaning that they adopt a low-intervention method of farming, so the vineyards are monitored continuously throughout the year and are tended to by hand in order to keep the amount of required treatments to a minimum.
In 2023, the winter was milder than average. However, the alternation of warmer and colder days caused a slight delay in the start of the vegetative cycle, which spanned the first two weeks of April. With excellent climatic conditions at the beginning of May, the vine grew at a steady pace. Flowering took place at the beginning of June, predicting a harvest in early September. The grape output was generous, and the harvest volume was promising. July was very unstable, and two hail episodes in mid-July caused some very localized damage. The ripening took place in very hot and sunny weather. The grapes reached maturity from the beginning of September and the harvest ended at the end of the month. Careful sorting in the vineyard and in the winery was often necessary to bring in the grapes in the best condition. Overall, 2023 was a plentiful vintage of excellent quality, with great maturity and powerful and balanced aromatics.
The grapes were thoroughly sorted both in the vineyard and the winery before being destemmed. After crushing, the must was cold soaked in stainless-steel vats before fermentation began using indigenous yeasts. During fermentation, punch downs were completed daily, in order to avoid excessive oxygen contact for 30 days, after which the wine was left to settle before being transferred to barrel. It was then matured on fine lees in new French oak barrels for 14 months before bottling.
The nose offers delicate and complex aromas of bright cherry, raspberry and violet with hints of fennel and clove. This wine has tremendous depth and intensity for a Bourgogne rouge, with fresh acidity and velvety tannins on the palate. Elegant and balanced, it will develop more flavour intensity and complexity with age.
