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91-93 WA.
"There are five and a half barrels of Dugat's 2019 Gevrey-Chambertin La Marie, a richer, more muscular wine that delivers aromas of cassis, cherries, dark chocolate, spice and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, layered and velvety, it's deep and concentrated, standing out as one of the richer, broader-shouldered wines in the cellar. The 2019 portfolio is another resounding success for the increasingly self assured Bertrand Dugat, who began picking on September 9 and who reported alcohol levels ranging between 12.6% and 13.1%—something that should confound any of the insufficiently informed stereotypes that already begin to circulate about this very fine vintage. As I've written before, a generational transition—Claude having handed the reins over to son Bertrand and daughters Laetitia and Jeanne—has been discreetly realized at Domaine Claude Dugat: The family's meticulous viticulture and enviable patrimony of old, sélection massale vines remain unchanged, but there have been subtle stylistic evolutions. Picking is earlier, the wines are no longer chaptalized, and the use of new oak is a touch more restrained—but above all, simply better integrated, with François Frères supplying barrels that seem to harmonize much more discreetly with the wines raised in them than was sometimes the case in yesteryear. Once again, that has produced a portfolio of remarkably pure, vibrant and impeccably balanced wines that number among the very finest in the Côte de Nuits. Several 2018s, revisited from bottle, showed superbly, too, making me glad to have a few bottles in my private cellar." William Kelley, Wine Advocate Interim, Jan 2021 |