A much more floral-inflected nose is equally fresh and ripe with a broader range of spice elements adding breadth to the pretty red and blue pinot fruit aromas that are trimmed in noticeable if not invasive wood. The caressing and wonderfully vibrant medium-bodied flavors possess better mid-palate density before concluding in a lingering, balanced and much more complex finale. I like the focused drive of the finish; indeed this could aptly be described as a wine that delivers power without weight. I would further note that the 2017 is a relatively elegant example and, like the La Forge, a wine that could be approached on the earlier side, which is to say after 7 to 8 years.

Score: 93 Allen Meadow (AM), Bourghound (BH), January 2020

The 2017 Clos de Tart Grand Cru is showing a bit of new oak on the nose, but it is simpatico with the pure red cherries, cranberry and wild strawberry scents. The palate is medium-bodied with fine- grained tannins and a silver bead of acidity, full of tension and surfeit with energy. There is superb salinity on the finish, which lingers long in the mouth. Sexy and quite sensual, this is a wine that needs time for the terroir to come through. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2017 tasting.

Score: 96 Neal Martin (NM), Vinous Media (VM), January 2022

The 2017 Clos de Tart Grand Cru is a little shut down after its recent bottling, but it is showing beautifully, wafting from the glass with aromas of sweet red berries, plums, wilted rose petals, peonies and dark chocolate, with only hints of the complexity to come with bottle age. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, supple and succulent, with an ample and enveloping core of fruit, powdery tannins and succulent acids, displaying good concentration and concluding with a long and perfumed finish. This is a fine showing for Clos de Tart, and despite its elegance, this 2017 will evidently reward bottle age.

This was my first tasting with Alessandro Noli, the new régisseur of Clos de Tart. Noli previously superintended the Rhône´s Château Grillet and before that worked at Domaine d´Eugenie in Vosne-Romanée. A new cuverie has been constructed and the cellars renovated, and it is clear that everything will change at this historic address—but more on that next year, as the wines I tased on this occasion had all been made by the previous régisseur, Jacques Desvauges, who is now installed next door at the Domaine des Lambrays. Desvauges harvested early in 2018 but nonetheless a few days after the Clos des Lambrays was picked, and the resulting wines are quite ripe, oaky and fruit-driven in style, nodding as much to the Sylvain Pitiot era at Clos de Tart as they do to Desvauges´s 2017, 2016, or even 2015 vintages. Indeed, on the basis of this first encounter, the 2018 would rank as my least-favorite of Desvauges´s four vintages here by some margin. But a definitive judgment will have to wait until the wine is in bottle next year, when I look forward to going into more detail about the changes at the estate, as well as tasting Noli´s first wines.

Score: 95 William Kelley (WK), The Wine Advocate (WA), January 2020