Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
80% new wood, mostly from François Frères and Taransaud. The blend of the various different cuvées seems if anything to be the deepest in colour, with pure refreshing red fruit, mostly raspberry in style but it is a mix of all the little red fruits. The whole bunch component, which varies according to each plot, has been tamed. There is a wonderful burst of rich velvet coated red fruit with a lovely crisp and crunchy tingle at the back. Fine tannins, good acidity, very much in balance. Tasted: November 2018
Barrel Sample: 94-98 -
Decanter
Despite what has been written about high yields in the Côte de Nuits in 2017, Jacques de Vauges made less Clos de Tart than he did in 2016. Picked much earlier than it used to be when Sylvain Pitiot was in charge, this is a fine, focussed, nuanced wine that expresses the complexity of this monopole grand cru. With deftly integrated 60% whole bunches and 80% new wood, it's elegant, floral and precise with chalky freshness.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Clos de Tart Grand Cru is a decided success, wafting from the glass with fragrant aromas of orange rind, raspberries, wild berries and peonies that are complemented by deeper-pitched nuances of grilled game, cinnamon and spicy soil tones. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, satiny and succulent, with an open, giving profile this year despite its excellent concentration and fleshy core, concluding with a tangy, saline finish. Tasting several barrels of the different components, which had been held back when the assemblage was made, was in a sense more revealing than trying the final blend, since the latter had been racked and sulfited. Once again, Jacques Desvauges used appreciable percentages of whole cluster and matured the wine in 80% new oak.
Barrel Sample: 93-95
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.