2021 Morey-Saint-Denis La Forge de Tart 1er Cru

Last year, I had a moan. I moaned about Clos de Tart’s stemware. It caused a few ripples. Good ripples. It encouraged them to reflect on how wines respond in different glasses and how the wrong shape can render pretty wines ugly. On that occasion, I called for superior stemware and it significantly improved the 2022s, then in barrel. Preempting my finicky attitude, winemaker Alessandro Noli had prepared two glasses to taste their wines. The traditional wide-bowled Burgundy glass is the one to use apropos Clos de Tart. As I explained to Noli, it is a comparatively tannic Grand Cru and this glass softens the tannins and heightens the red fruit. One thing to note is that ten days before harvest, he asked the BIVB to authorize a higher legal maximum yield of 38 hl/ha, but in the end, it came in at 34 hl/ha. Also, note that one prime parcel (Ballonge 1) was deselected and blended into La Forge and the lower percentage of new oak.”

Last year, I had a moan. I moaned about Clos de Tart’s stemware. It caused a few ripples. Good ripples. It encouraged them to reflect on how wines respond in different glasses and how the wrong shape can render pretty wines ugly. On that occasion, I called for superior stemware and it significantly improved the 2022s, then in barrel. Preempting my finicky attitude, winemaker Alessandro Noli had prepared two glasses to taste their wines. The traditional wide-bowled Burgundy glass is the one to use apropos Clos de Tart. As I explained to Noli, it is a comparatively tannic Grand Cru and this glass softens the tannins and heightens the red fruit. One thing to note is that ten days before harvest, he asked the BIVB to authorize a higher legal maximum yield of 38 hl/ha, but in the end, it came in at 34 hl/ha. Also, note that one prime parcel (Ballonge 1) was deselected and blended into La Forge and the lower percentage of new oak.”

After tasting through the 2021 and 2022s with winemaker Alessandro Noli, I wasn’t a happy puppy. Why? The stemware. Not fit for purpose. The glass rim was too thick, blurring the aromatics, heightening the tannins and dulling the wines. “Do you have any other glassware?” I ask impertinently, though judging by his expression, Noli has similar concerns. Repouring the Clos de Tart into superior stemware (Sydonios), the difference is unequivocal. It’s a different wine. I’m not surprised. I think Noli is taken aback. I would not be surprised if he took all their glasses and chucked them away. Suffice it to say; quality stemware is crucial if examining the anatomy of nascent wines, amateur or professional.

With that out the way, Noli talked about the 2022 vintage. “It was an easy, dry growing season, but not like 2020,” he tells me in one of the smartest tasting rooms in the Côte d’Or. “We started the harvest on August 26 and picked over the following five and a half days. We cropped at 28hL/ha because of the small size of grapes and lack of juice. To put that into figures, in 2022, we needed 395kg of grapes to fill barrels instead of an average of around 350kg. We did a four-day cold pre-fermentation soak, and we did one foulage [crushing the berries] quite early in the vinification in order to gain finer tannins and low alcohol. At a density of 1,020, I try not to do anything anymore, and I prefer to play with the vin de presse.”

After tasting through the 2021 and 2022s with winemaker Alessandro Noli, I wasn’t a happy puppy. Why? The stemware. Not fit for purpose. The glass rim was too thick, blurring the aromatics, heightening the tannins and dulling the wines. “Do you have any other glassware?” I ask impertinently, though judging by his expression, Noli has similar concerns. Repouring the Clos de Tart into superior stemware (Sydonios), the difference is unequivocal. It’s a different wine. I’m not surprised. I think Noli is taken aback. I would not be surprised if he took all their glasses and chucked them away. Suffice it to say; quality stemware is crucial if examining the anatomy of nascent wines, amateur or professional.

With that out the way, Noli talked about the 2022 vintage. “It was an easy, dry growing season, but not like 2020,” he tells me in one of the smartest tasting rooms in the Côte d’Or. “We started the harvest on August 26 and picked over the following five and a half days. We cropped at 28hL/ha because of the small size of grapes and lack of juice. To put that into figures, in 2022, we needed 395kg of grapes to fill barrels instead of an average of around 350kg. We did a four-day cold pre-fermentation soak, and we did one foulage [crushing the berries] quite early in the vinification in order to gain finer tannins and low alcohol. At a density of 1,020, I try not to do anything anymore, and I prefer to play with the vin de presse.”

Alessandro Noli, former winemaker at Château Grillet, is now fully embedded in Burgundy. In the recent Morey merry-go-round, it can get a little confusing who made what and when, but things appear to now be settled and Noli can begin writing his own chapter in this historic monopole. “We started the picking on 13 September and did six days of harvest instead of the usual five,” he told me in what must constitute one of the most luxurious tasting rooms in the Côte d’Or. “We now split the clos into 12 sectors, so it takes longer. We are analysing each plot at the University of Bordeaux to ascertain ideal quantities of whole bunches and trials blends, whether they add or not. Frédéric Engerer asked me: What is your idea of Clos de Tart? I feel that it has a masculinity that comes naturally. So, I want to find the more feminine side, like a Chambolle. I like the tannins to be silky, which is why I stopped completely with the pigeage and began foulage [crushing], which is ten times gentler and less brutal. I did around two _foulages per vat. Also, I don’t believe in 100% new oak and so I said let’s try 70% on the Grand Cru and 50% on La Forge. We have new wooden tanks and I didn’t know how the new wood would impact the wine. So, I made two cuvées in steel tanks to balance the wood and the wine. I think 70% matches the Clos de Tart very well. It’s a different wine compared to the wines made under Sylvain Pitiot.”

Following my visit to Clos de Tart, I came away thinking how Noli is a clever winemaker, moving it gently away from some of the over-extracted, hedonistic wines of the past. Tasting the 2018 and 2019 side-by-side, I definitely prefer the 2019 by comparison, the former suffering partly because of the growing season and partly because wines sometimes do become “distracted” when the baton is passed from one winemaker to another. Noli seems to be imbuing Clos de Tart with greater finesse and nerve whilst keeping the identity of the vineyard. With no expense being spared in reconstructing the winery, it will be fascinating to witness the next decade of Clos de Tart. The 2019 is a great way for Noli to open his account.

Alessandro Noli, former winemaker at Château Grillet, is now fully embedded in Burgundy. In the recent Morey merry-go-round, it can get a little confusing who made what and when, but things appear to now be settled and Noli can begin writing his own chapter in this historic monopole. “We started the picking on 13 September and did six days of harvest instead of the usual five,” he told me in what must constitute one of the most luxurious tasting rooms in the Côte d’Or. “We now split the clos into 12 sectors, so it takes longer. We are analysing each plot at the University of Bordeaux to ascertain ideal quantities of whole bunches and trials blends, whether they add or not. Frédéric Engerer asked me: What is your idea of Clos de Tart? I feel that it has a masculinity that comes naturally. So, I want to find the more feminine side, like a Chambolle. I like the tannins to be silky, which is why I stopped completely with the pigeage and began foulage [crushing], which is ten times gentler and less brutal. I did around two _foulages per vat. Also, I don’t believe in 100% new oak and so I said let’s try 70% on the Grand Cru and 50% on La Forge. We have new wooden tanks and I didn’t know how the new wood would impact the wine. So, I made two cuvées in steel tanks to balance the wood and the wine. I think 70% matches the Clos de Tart very well. It’s a different wine compared to the wines made under Sylvain Pitiot.”

Following my visit to Clos de Tart, I came away thinking how Noli is a clever winemaker, moving it gently away from some of the over-extracted, hedonistic wines of the past. Tasting the 2018 and 2019 side-by-side, I definitely prefer the 2019 by comparison, the former suffering partly because of the growing season and partly because wines sometimes do become “distracted” when the baton is passed from one winemaker to another. Noli seems to be imbuing Clos de Tart with greater finesse and nerve whilst keeping the identity of the vineyard. With no expense being spared in reconstructing the winery, it will be fascinating to witness the next decade of Clos de Tart. The 2019 is a great way for Noli to open his account.

There is a "merry-go-round" of winemakers in the heart of Morey-Saint-Denis and Clos de Tart/Domaine des Lambrays. Alessandro Noli has been drafted in from running Château Grillet in the Rhône to run Clos de Tart since the departure of Jacques Desvauges, now at Domaine des Lambrays. Noli was there to greet me at Clos de Tart with Frédéric Engerer, the director of all Artemis's wineries including Château Latour. Noli is a former lawyer who changed career and in 2006 started working in the vineyard at the aforementioned First Growth. He subsequently worked for four years at Domaine d’Eugénie where he implemented their biodynamic program from 2009. He headed up Château Grillet from 2011 and since last year, is now back in Burgundy. "He has the mindset of Artemis," Engerer told me. "He has the experience of running a monopole at Grillet and making assemblages of small lots. We have subdivided some of the plots according to vine age, soils type, massale selection and so forth, plus one parcel being replanted in 2018. [Engerer shows me a fascinating but complex map of the Clos]. There is also a new vat-room where we have 15 new wooden Taransaud vats augmented by the five stainless steel vats. There is a new Morey-Saint-Denis Village from young vines across all the plots." The introduction of a Village Cru mirrors the three-tiers of wine at Château Latour, though the production of this Village Cru is relatively small. I also asked about their intentions with respect to whole bunch addition, which has become increasingly important at Clos de Tart. Engerer told me that they are undertaking studies of the stems and the impact of whole bunch on the wine in order to find correlations where they might use whole clusters in the future. There is 60% in the 2018 vintage that was picked from 30 August, the earliest on record, dichotomous to former winemaker Sylvain Pitiot's policy of picking late. I was also told that the malolactic was done immediately after alcoholic fermentation and in some cases before the wines was racked down in barrels. Finally, I asked what their vision is for a vineyard whose history stretches back centuries. Engerer said: "We have an immense respect for what has been done: understanding older vintages and how they have aged even if they used different techniques. We want to make the best wine and realise its potential. We see different "faces" within Clos de Tart, different concentration and tannins, different energy that we can feel immediately."

I was recently chatting to a maven who described the 7.5-hectare monopole of Clos de Tart as the heart of Burgundy. I see his point. It seems to lie in the geographic epicentre of the Côte de Nuits, its facade dominating the T-junction in the centre of Morey-Saint-Denis where three ladies are permanently settled on an outside bench. François Pinault’s acquisition last October, just a few days before I visited, is now old news. At that time, I felt it overshadowed the equally important news that winemaker Jacques Desvauges had conjured perhaps the greatest Clos de Tart ever made, a view I maintain having tasted 50 vintages of Clos de Tart a few months ago (due on Vinous early next year, including the 2016 in bottle.) Meeting Desvauges and touring the winery, I concluded that by all appearances, nothing has changed. We will see what lies in the future now it has its place on the mantelpiece alongside Château Latour, Château Grillet, Araujo and of course, Domaine d’Eugénie in Vosne-Romanée. For now, let us broach the matter in hand – how the hell do you follow up an epic wine like the 2016 Clos de Tart? First, Desvauges summarized the growing season.

“March was very warm. It was the warmest since 1957. We had bud-burst on March 30 and after May or June it continued warm and sunny, with early flowering on June 1 and 2. There was only three weeks until the closing of bunches. We started to pick on September 6. I think about those early-picked vintages like 2003 or 2007. We have more experience now; we know how to handle those situations. We are probably one of the only domaines that produced less wine in 2017 than 2016 – 32hl/ha and 35hl/ha, respectively. This is one of the keys of the vintage. The Pinot Noir was generous and the great wines, in my opinion, will be those from reasonable yields. The fruit was ripe with noticeable freshness, which is what I like. You also feel the terroir. The alcohol level is 13.4° and there is 60% whole bunch in the blend.”

Well, the good news is that Desvauges follows the 2016 with a brilliant 2017. Tasting both the component cuvées per soil type and elevation, plus the final blend, this is potentially a wonderful Clos de Tart surfeit with freshness and complexity. Whilst I do not find it quite matches the ethereal concentration of the previous vintage, it is, thankfully, cut from similar cloth. Gone are the tendencies to over-egg the wine, as tended to be the case in the past, and, crucially, I find picking dates are now spot on instead of waiting for notional optimal ripeness that transpired to be overripe, evidenced by the evolution of some vintages from the late 1990s and 2000s in bottle. It will be interesting to see where Clos de Tart is priced once released onto the market, but for sure, Desvauges has taken Clos de Tart to a higher level.

The 2014 Clos de Tart was made by Sylvain Pitiot but blended and bottled by Jacques Devauges, who succeeded Pitiot as winemaker here in early 2015. In the end, Devauges decided to declassify the estate's young-vines cuvée into their La Forge de Tart premier cru bottling, as he found the grand cru blend "a bit more deep and attractive" without it.

The 2014 Clos de Tart was made by Sylvain Pitiot but blended and bottled by Jacques Devauges, who succeeded Pitiot as winemaker here in early 2015 In the end, Devauges decided to declassify the estate's young-vines cuvée into their La Forge de Tart premier cru bottling, as he found the grand cru blend "a bit more deep and attractive" without it