Domaine Bart

Domaine Bart is in Marsannay-la-Côte, at the northern gate of the Côte de Nuits. It took its present shape in 1982, when Martin Bart and his sister Odile took their share of the Clair-Daü estate as it was broken up. Odile's son Pierre has run the domaine since 2009 and works it alongside his uncle. It was a forebear on the Clair side who made the first Marsannay rosé in 1919 and put the village on the map. There are about twenty-two hectares today: seventeen of them in Marsannay, with parcels in Fixin, a hectare in Santenay, and the grand cru holdings in Gevrey-Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny.

Two grands crus came down from the Clair-Daü side and are made in small quantity: Chambertin Clos de Bèze in Gevrey-Chambertin, and about a hectare of Bonnes-Mares on the boundary of Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-Saint-Denis. Below them is the Fixin premier cru Les Hervelets, on the slope just north of Gevrey. The bulk of the estate, though, is Marsannay bottled plot by plot: nine reds in all, namely Au Champ Salomon, Les Ouzeloy, La Montagne, Finottes, Longeroies, Les Grandes Vignes, Es Chezots, Saint-Jacques and Clos du Roy, alongside two Marsannay whites and the rosé.

The vineyards are worked on organic principles, without herbicides, but the estate holds no organic or biodynamic certification. The average vine is around forty years old and some parcels date from 1922. Marsannay has no premiers crus: an application covering fourteen climats, among them Au Champ Salomon and En la Montagne, has been before the INAO since 2011 and has not yet been granted. Fermentation runs on native yeast after a cool maceration, and new oak varies by cuvée, from none on the Bourgogne to around half on the grands crus. The style is savoury and firm rather than plush, fresh red fruit over a stony edge. Arcana Cabinet lists six wines from the domaine: the grands crus Chambertin Clos de Bèze and Bonnes-Mares, the Fixin premier cru Les Hervelets, and three single-vineyard Marsannay reds, Au Champ Salomon, Les Ouzeloy and La Montagne. The range also includes the other Marsannay lieux-dits, the whites and the rosé.