2001 Domaine du Clos de Tart 'Clos de Tart' Grand Cru Monopole, Cote de Nuits, France 1.5L

I have been in love with this wine since I first encountered it in barrel and it seems only to have gotten better and better. An elegant, pure and refined nose of earth, coffee, spice and intensely perfumed black cherries combine with focused, tautly muscular, remarkably complex and precise full-bodied, sweet and palate staining flavors that seem to go on and on. But the quality that impresses me the most is the dazzling combination of finesse and power, all wrapped in a finish of near perfect harmony and balance. This should be capable of aging well for at least two decades though for my taste, it has just arrived on the front edge of its peak drinkability. A great wine that is not as dense or monumental as the '05 but this is finer. Multiple, and consistent, notes as my scores have varied only between 94 and 95 points.

The 2001 Clos de Tart is aging beautifully and is maturing into one of Sylvain Pitiot’s finest wines. Replicating its performance in 2010, it has a very expressive bouquet of vivacious red berry fruit: wild strawberry and raspberry, laced with minerals and dried rose petals. The palate is very well-balanced and full of succulent brambly red fruit. Perhaps it is moving into its secondary phase less slowly than I anticipated, with nuanced undergrowth notes developing toward the finish, which remains very fruit-driven and tense. There is a sense of style and class to this Clos de Tart, a grand cru bound to age with those same attributes over the following decade and beyond. Drink now-2024+. (NM)