Professional Reviews
Burghound
BH
92
"This is enormously ripe and explodes from the glass with warm wood-framed aromas of coffee, tobacco, plum, prune, smoked meat and dried herbs that introduce massively constituted though not incredibly structured flavors of serious size, weight and depth that are blessed with buckets of extract that completely buffer the firm and ripe tannic backbone. This is not my style but it's not imbalanced or unduly warm and it's a wine that will live for 50 years, perhaps longer."
Antonio Galloni
AG
92
"Saturated ruby-red. Aromas of blackberry liqueur and dark tropical chocolate; "like a bon-bon," says Pithiot. Sweet, lush and huge, stuffed with fruit and torrefaction flavors. Amazingly thick and almost too ripe for its own good, but there's superb retention of fruit here, no doubt due to the north-south direction of the vine rows. Finishes with big, dusty tannins, strong oakiness and palate-staining length. 'Drink now through 2025,' Pithiot suggests, although I suspect that this massive wine will shut down at some point, perhaps for a long time. The 2003 Clos de Tart could easily be tasted against the highest-octane examples from the New World." -Vinous
Robert Parker
RP
94
"The 2003 Clos de Tart, tasted at the estate and then again from an acquired bottle to witness the effect of air on it, is an outstanding, potentially exceptional wine. That being said, I can’t help but wonder how magnificent it would have been if it had not been acidified. It is dark ruby/purple-colored and bursts from the glass with black cherries, blackberries, and roasting spices. Intensely powerful, this wine boasts superb concentration and depth. A mouth-coating, full-bodied, thick effort, it slathers the palate with black fruits. This sappy, chunky wine possesses an extremely long finish with firm, hard tannin. Air was kind to this 2003, bringing elegance to its muscular nature, and slightly sweetening its tannin."
Jancis Robinson
JR
18
"Extremely inviting. Ripe fruit and intense mocha aroma and fully spiced. Thick and full in the mouth, the deepest pile tannins of the wines tasted in this flight but very smooth. Rich and voluptuous and dense with no hint of overripeness of fruit or harshness of tannin and just enough freshness. Unexpectedly delicious and hedonistic though less elegance and finesse than the rest of the flight. Chewy and mouthfilling and fragrant on the finish with a warmth at the very end."
Wine Spectator
WS
95
"Aromas of tar and smoke, with very pure, concentrated blackberry and spice notes underneath mark this exotic, seductive red. Silky and complex, it caresses the palate. It needs a little time to absorb the oak, but this is long and has great potential."
