2017 Domaine du Clos de Tart Clos de Tart Grand Cru

Bright crimson purple, with an excellent weight of fruit. Some brambly notes, a little bit of spice, quite complex. Fills the mouth and builds well to the back. Not one of the riper wines as red fruit dominates, but no complaints about that in these warmer times!

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.

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.