Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
There are eight lots here, and this is the likely definitive blend, which will be made final before bottling. Voluptuous red fruit nose displaying power, force and aromatic purity despite the new oak. Lovely attack, packed with fruit and a graceful acidity. Great clarity and precision, but it's no heavyweight, convincing by its intensity. There's 13.4% alcohol here but it's not apparent, and neither are the tannins. Harmonious and very long finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Clos de Tart Grand Cru is a monumental young wine, opening in the glass with a brooding bouquet of wild berries, peony, orange rind, licorice, espresso roast and spice. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, powerful and multidimensional, with an enormous core of vibrant fruit, an ample chassis of fine tannins and a beautiful line of acidity. While the vintage has brought an extra dimension of concentration and power to this Clos de Tart, it remains wonderfully controlled through the long, palate-staining finish, and the terroir—including its proximity to Bonnes Mares—is front and center. With his first solo vintage at Clos de Tart, Jacques Desvauges has evidently hit the ground running. Cropped at 22 hectoliters per hectare, vinified with 40% whole cluster, and aged in 80% new wood.
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Vinous
The 2015 Clos de Tart Grand Cru has a very intense, almost precocious bouquet of perfumed black cherry, boysenberry, pencil box and cold black tea, all beautifully defined. A subtle rusty tincture surfaces with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with rounded, supple tannin, an equal offering of red and black fruit laced with graphite, and almost Bordeaux \"Graves\" notes toward the beautifully focused, sustained finish. It ameliorates considerably in the glass, cajoling me to up my score. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
While Morey-St-Denis of Burgundy might not get the same attention as its neighbors, Gevrey-Chambertin to the north and Chambolle-Musigny to the south, there is no reason why it shouldn’t. The same line of limestone runs from the Combe de Lavaux in Gevrey—all the way through Morey—ending in Chambolle.
There are four grand cru vineyards, moving southwards from the border with Gevrey-Chambertin: Clos de la Roche, Clos St-Denis, Clos des Lambrays, Clos de Tart and a small segment of Bonnes-Mares overlapping from Chambolle. Clos de la Roche is probably the finest vineyard, giving wines of true depth, body, and sturdiness for the long haul than most other vineyards.
Pinot Noir from Morey-St-Denis is known for its deep red cherry, blackcurrant and blueberry fruit. Aromas of spice, licorice and purple flowers are present in the wines’ youth, evolving to forest and game as the wine ages.