Clos de Tart is one of the greatest terroirs of the Côte d’Or and since Sylvain Pitiot took over as manager in the late ‘90s, this site has produced one of Burgundy’s most consistently outstanding Grand Cru wines. The average vine age in the clos is now over 60 years, with some parcels over 100 years old. The vines run north-south along the slope, a rare orientation only found in approximately 1% of Burgundy’s vineyards. This is designed to prevent erosion but also changes the impact of sunlight and the shading on the vines.
Organic growing methods are the rule here (now certified) and renowned soil scientist Claude Bourguignon has consulted for some time. Although the clos has a regular, east-southeast aspect, the clay/limestone geology is very complex with six different expressions of limestone found across the vineyard–the most prominent being calcaires à entroques, white marl and hard Prémeaux limestone.
Picking started on the 20th of September this year—almost a full month later than in 2020—and lasted five days. Yields were a very low 20 hl/ha, reflecting the poor flowering and the season. Extraction was very gentle: one early foot treading of the cap and then only pumpovers. The wine spent three weeks on skins and aged for 22 months before bottling. Noli has reduced the level of new oak down to 65% (from 100% not so long ago). Only the best batches made it to the final blend, which ended up being roughly 55% whole bunches. As always, the wine was hand-bottled by gravity without fining or filtration.
Despite the challenging year, this is a truly great Clos de Tart and, from memory, is showing better as a young wine than any examples I have tried. It’s as classy an expression of this wine that I have come across, and I can’t wait to see what it does with further aging.