Clos de Tart, Grand Cru, 2015
Jacques Devauges’ full debut vintage. Earlier picking, gentler extractions and 80% new oak rather than 100% have made for a beautifully elegant Clos de Tart, even in a ripe powerful vintage such as 2015. Yes there is flesh and fruit, silkiness and generosity, yet the flavours are so clear-cut, floating and fine. This is no powerhouse, the ripe but bright fruit flavours are intense but glide across the palate. Notes of ripe red cherry and bramble fruits, griotte, sloe and kirsch. There is a wonderfully floral touch and a twist of fresh alpine strawberry and mineral that give the finish a refreshing twist. A wine of beauty, seduction and haunting elegance all in one. A blend of seven lots with a large proportion of whole bunches – 40%. The younger vines (25 years old!) were so good that there was no La Forge de Tart cuvee made this year, everything went into the Grand Vin.
critic reviews
It is several years since I last tasted the 2015 Clos de Tart Grand Cru, which Jacques Devauges made in his first year. This has a more rustic bouquet compared to recent vintages: brambly red fruit, iron filings, and that "rusty nail" component that I observed back in 2018. The palate is medium-bodied with firm tannins. This is quite a meaty Clos de Tart with hints of dried blood infusing the red fruit—a ferrous Grand Cru, still with that quasi-Graves finish. I would actually afford this another couple of years in bottle.