1999 - Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, Dujac

(the yield here was 45 hectoliters per hectare): Good full red. Knockout explosive nose combines raspberry, brown spices, underbrush, mustard seed and roast coffee. Very rich and sweet but with terrific energy and minerality lifting the wine's red fruit flavors. This grand cru is evolving at a snail's pace and seemed to grow even fresher as it opened in the glass. Finishes with firm but suave tannins and outstanding slowly rising length, with an unexpected piquant note of blood orange. This incredible Clos de la Roche is just approaching its peak. The most amazing thing of all: I tasted it from a 375-milliliter bottle.

At age 20, Dujac's 1999 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru is really beginning to drink very well, blossoming in the glass with a strikingly complex bouquet of cherries, wild berries, smoked meats, incense, exotic spices, peonies and candied peel. Full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, it's layered and complete, with an ample core of sapid fruit, lively acids and rich but melting tannins, concluding with a long and perfumed finish.

Rich, round and rather gorgeous. Strong sweet cassis aroma. Great majesty and a very obvious grand cru in terms of depth and freshness. Lovely texture. Fresh, racy and mineral. Real energy here together with the weight of a grand cru. But there is such poise that I can imagine it being rather lovely even quite young. (JR)