Clos de Tart Retrospective and 2 Fabulous Ports
Martin Weiner's Westwood Home
Tasted Friday, December 14, 2007 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 1,476 views
Introduction
Clos de Tart Retrospective – 1988 - 2004
Martin Weiner Dinner Tasting
A lovely holiday Burgundy dinner tasting, delving into a Grand Cru with great potential that has traditionally underperformed compared to its illustrious neighbors. Since 1996 Clos de Tart has been run by Sylvain Pitiot, who has made improvements aimed at making the wines produced in this monopole live more fully up to their Grand Cru status. According to James Turnbull, “[s]ilkiness, elegance and refinement have always been the Clos de Tart’s qualities, but the wine has often lacked the element of richness which is a prerequisite in a Grand Cru. Sylvain Pitiot is aiming for more concentration, for a cross between Chambertin and Musigny,” the vineyard’s neighbors.
The 2000 Montrachet starter was surprisingly good (from a defunct negociant Simon Loftus generally trashed in his book on Puligny-Montrachet). The champagne, especially the Krug, was lovely, and the Clos de Tarts were much as one might expect, with the young vintages being quite tight and youthful yet, the ’97, though, seeming more mature even than the lovely, pre-Pitiot 1990. The 1988 out of magnum was good, but a little past its prime. Ultimately the Ports were the megastars of the night, with the ’55 Cockburn being even more wonderful than I remember from a bottle a year and a half earlier, and the Quinta do Noval Nacional easily showing why it is the crème de la crème of Port.
Flight 1 - Starter wine (1 Note)
Starter, served with prosciutto de Parma and Serrano ham with buffalo mozzarella and fresh mozzarella
Flight 2 - Champagne Flight (2 Notes)
Served with gravlax a la Maison Weiner (i.e., cured in Beefeater’s gin instead of Aquavit) with mustard herb and dill sauce
Flight 3 - Clos de Tart Flight 1 (3 Notes)
Served with dinner of twice cooked quail, with sautéed mushrooms, fresh roasted shallots, French green beans with butter, wild and black rice
Flight 4 - Clos de Tart Flight 2 (3 Notes)
Flight 5 - Clos de Tart Flight 3 (2 Notes)
Flight 6 - Port Flight (3 Notes)
with homemade Stilton quiche 
Closing
3 '55 Vintagers:
2000 Chartron et Trébuchet Montrachet 94 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
Bright canary yellow color; nice tart lemon cream and tangerine and lime nose; lovely, elegant, tart lemon, cream palate, very youthful yet; long finish
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