Clos de Tart, Mommessin 2012

Tasted at the pre-dinner vertical to mark Sylvain Pitiot's retirement from the domaine, the 2012 Clos de Tart Grand Cru has just a wonderful nose with more fruit intensity than the 2013, so pure and feminine with ebullient raspberry preserve and strawberry notes, sheer pinoté! The palate is beautifully structured with fine tannin, tensile, refined and aristocratic. There is a brilliant focus here and an extraordinary sustained finish that leaves you desperate for the next sip. What it shares in common with the 2008 Clos de Tart Grand Cru is that it is predestined to be overshadowed by the 2009 and 2010. That should not be the case - it is a quite brilliant articulation of the Clos. Bon vin!

The final blend made by Sylvain Pitiot has a gorgeous, mineral-soaked bouquet with dark cherries, blackcurrant, sea cave and sous-bois that unfolds in the glass. There is a crystalline beauty to this bouquet - you enter it, it does not enter you. The palate is medium-bodied with fleshy ripe tannins, very good mineralite and acidity, superb tension courtesy of the tensile, almost steely tannins and it builds towards a very focused sorbet-fresh finish with a long stony aftertaste. This will require several years in bottle: a bona fide vin de garde that will age effortlessly over 20+ years, doubtless revealing hidden facets along the way.