Jacques Seysses is most notably recognized for his support of clonal selection research used during a replanting program between 1978 and 1983 where he created six distinct clones specifically for Clos-de-la-Roche and revinified the virtually extinct Clone 123, known for its small berry size. Beginning with “lutte raisonée” management in 1987, the vineyard practices have since moved to organic farming as of 2001. 

Manager Lilian Robin has continued the enormous ongoing effort to incorporate biodynamic farming that was initiated at the domaine in the mid-1980s by the late Christophe Morin. To this end, no herbicides or insecticides have been used since 1986 and other viticultural practices are under constant review. Today, approximately 75% of the vineyards are now farmed organically with most of it also under biodynamic practices.

“We are biodynamic, but I try not to make too much of it – we will never be putting our organic status on the bottles. It’s just about good winemaking.” - Jacques Seysses on Dujac’s committment to the environment

Jacques Seysses became a leading advocate of minimal destemming. He believes that the mature stems actually reduce the amount of hard tannins in the resulting wine and help to avoid bruising the grapes as a result of the destemming during the fermentation process. The underground cellars have recently been extended to achieve cooler temperatures which enable the malolactic fermentation to occur later, thus reducing the number of rackings required. 

The team reduces the need for sulfur by using a generous portion of French oak (roughly 40% for the village wines, 60% to 85% for the 1er crus and up to 100% for the grand crus) for about 18 months, which results in a long, slow oxygenation to young wines and helps to bring out stabilizing tannins. Seysses ensures the barrels have light toast to prevent overpowering the wines. All wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered.