One of your objectives was to more accurately reflect the terroir of this great Estate in the bottle. Can you tell us more about how you went about this in the vineyard?
This was the first crop picked according to our new vineyard layout (see map on p. 5). This layout recognises the specific qualities of each micro-terroir within the Clos and is based on 4 principal criteria - soil composition (more or less limestone or marl, the source and quality of the plant material (mass selection or clones), the type of pruning (Guyot or Cordon de Royat) and the age of the vines.
Significant building work has been taking place at Clos de Tart of late. What have you been doing in the cellars?
With optimal terroir expression in mind, we undertook major renovation work to improve our cellars. 2019 was the first vintage to be vinified in our newly renovated vat room. 15 new wooden vats of different sizes 15 new wooden vats of different sizes ranging from 20hL to 40hL have replaced the old stainless-steel vats of 50hL enabling us to be even more precise in our winemaking, vinifying on a plot-by-plot basis.
Have you implemented any other changes on the winemaking side?
We have fine-tuned our approach to harvest dates to ensure we pick each plot at the optimal time thereby retaining freshness, aromatic complexity and plot character. In addition, our gentler approach to winemaking aims further to enhance our terroir understanding. The use of new oak in the ageing process has also decreased. We also started a study with Bordeaux University in 2019, which is still ongoing, to determine the ideal percentage of whole bunches in each of the newly-identified plots in the Clos.