Jeremy Seysses, winemaker and co-owner at Domaine Dujac, has stepped beyond Pinot Noir to help create a new expression of single-vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
Trailside Vineyard in Rutherford represents a partnership project that begun in 2020, including Seysses and Carlton McCoy Jr MS, CEO of Lawrence Wine Estates, which is the owner of Heitz Cellar among other wineries.
A first release, of the debut 2022 vintage, will take place on 26 February and wines will be allocated to Trailside Vineyard members, said the partners this week. Price details weren’t disclosed.
They described the wine as a ‘terroir-driven, age-worthy style that is an homage to Napa Valley’s glory days of the 1960s and 1970s’.
Jeremy Seysses (left) and Carlton McCoy Jr. MS. Photo credit: Courtesy of Trailside Vineyard.
McCoy Jr said, ‘In the 1970s and into the 1980s, our vineyard was the core source for Spring Mountain Vineyard’s legendary Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
‘One of those 40-year-old bottles was an epiphany for me. Bright but rich, it still held on to a striking perfume, delivered on elegant and plush tannins.’
McCoy Jr said he had been friends with Seysses since early in his wine career. ‘When I first saw Rutherford’s Trailside Vineyard in 2019, and saw the map of its seven different soil types, I knew I had to work with a winemaker who had the patience and perfectionism to do justice to each of these individual blocks.’
Seysses said the wine, which involved fermenting each climat of the vineyard separately, reflected a ‘high-risk, high-reward approach’.
Some techniques defy convention in Napa, said the partners, highlighting the incorporation of whole clusters and a submerged cap in the fermentation.
‘We’re willing to explore techniques that are rooted in tradition, but uncommonly seen in Napa Valley,’ said Seysses.
Trailside Vineyard will join the Lawrence Wine Estates portfolio, which also includes historic Napa winery Heitz Cellar and Bordeaux second growth Château Lascombes.?
At Dujac, Seysses oversees operations with his brother, Alec, and his wife Diana Snowden Seysses, who is both oenologist at the Burgundy domaine and winemaker at her family’s Snowden Vineyards in California.
Related articles
Penfolds unveils Grange La Chapelle
Interview: New Château Lascombes owners plot big changes
Domaine Dujac profile and wine reviews
The post Jeremy Seysses of Burgundy’s Dujac in Napa Cabernet venture appeared first on Decanter.
Source : https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/jeremy-seysses-of-burgundys-dujac-in-napa-cabernet-venture-550980/
