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.
Recapitulating the 2015 vintage while we tasted its fruits, Jacques Desvauges reflected on a frustratingly small crop, whereby the work of an even and propitious flowering period had been partially undone by a hot spell in June that stressed the vines, prompting them to drop some of their berries. Fifty-five millimeters of rain in August, in Desvauges' analysis, is what differentiates 2015 from 2005, with the additional hydration facilitating a more complete phenolic maturity. After an early harvest, the various lots were fermented with an average of 40% whole clusters before maturation in 80% new wood. This represents a triad of subtle but judicious departures from Pitiot-era practices at this address that bear fruit in a wine that, to my palate, possesses more evident "soul" and site character than anything preceding it this millennium.
William Kelley