Alessandro Noli

The Path

Vineyard work sets a different order of attention than cellar-first training: rows, soils, weather, and repeated observation come before polish. From 2006, Alessandro Noli worked as a vineyard worker at Château Latour, a grounding in field discipline that remained visible in later decisions. Work through Domaine d’Eugénie led to Domaine d’Eugénie (2009–2011), where he implemented a biodynamic program. The through-line is farming as a technical base for wine, not as decoration: parcels are read, vines are watched, and the eventual shape of the wine begins with choices made outside. A head / winemaker role at Château-Grillet in Rhône, France (2011–2019) put that field training into a narrower frame of precision, patience, and terroir-driven craft. In that position, Alessandro Noli worked in the time lag familiar to winemakers: decisions made in vineyard and cellar are tested later, in bottle, when texture, freshness, and proportion have had time to declare themselves. The director and régisseur role at Clos de Tart since 2019 has placed vineyard discipline and cellar restraint inside one of Burgundy’s major domaines. Alessandro Noli’s work there is best read through method: parcel attention, adjusted extraction, calibrated oak, and a cellar treated as a continuation of the ground rather than a separate stage.

The Work Today

Since 2019, Noli has been director at Clos de Tart in Morey-Saint-Denis, Burgundy, France. The current work at Clos de Tart has moved toward finer, more elegant wines through gentler vinification, precise whole-cluster proportions, and reduced new oak usage. The aim is not to remove the site’s natural power, but to change how that power is carried. Noli has put it plainly: "I feel that it has a masculinity that comes naturally. So, I want to find the more feminine side, like a Chambolle." Whole-cluster decisions are being treated as parcel work, not cellar habit. Noli divided Clos de Tart into 12 sectors and analyzes each plot at the University of Bordeaux to determine ideal whole-bunch quantities and trial blends. The method brings soil composition, plant material, pruning type, and vine age into the estate’s internal map, with trial blending used to test proportion before the final decision is made. The 2019 crop was picked according to a new vineyard layout recognizing micro-terroirs based on soil composition, plant material, pruning type, and vine age. Extraction also shifted from force toward texture: "I like the tannins to be silky, which is why I stopped completely with the pigeage and began foulage [crushing], which is ten times gentler and less brutal." The technical point is clear to any cellar: less impact, more attention to the feel of tannin. Oak use has been recalibrated as part of the same move toward proportion. On the Grand Cru, he tried 70% new oak; on La Forge, 50%. Structure remains part of the wines, but the work is increasingly organized around restraint, clarity, and how much frame the fruit and site actually need.

Signature

The named signatures are 2019 Clos de Tart Grand Cru, 2019 Clos de Tart, 2021 Clos de Tart, 2021 Morey St. Denis 1er Les Forges de Tart, and 2022 Morey St. Denis 1er Les Forges de Tart.

In Their Words “Very happy – the grapes were nice, and so was the volume. 34 hl/ha – the most I ever made. 35 hl/ha is the limit, the same as for Romanée-Conti and La Tâche – the 3 lowest maximums in the Côte d’Or.” “I like the tannins to be silky, which is why I stopped completely with the pigeage and began foulage [crushing], which is ten times gentler and less brutal.”

Acclaim

Vintage commentary gives the working frame behind the bottles: yield, legal limit, dryness, harvest timing, and freshness. On one crop, Noli said, "Very happy – the grapes were nice, and so was the volume. 34 hl/ha – the most I ever made. 35 hl/ha is the limit, the same as for Romanée-Conti and La Tâche – the 3 lowest maximums in the Côte d’Or." On another, he said, "We produced 28 hl/ha – we aim for 32-33 – but had some dryness in the vintage. We harvested relatively early to preserve the freshness in the wine." The recognition here is tied to measure rather than flourish. In Noli’s account, the craft is in the thresholds: how much crop, how dry the season, when to pick, how to protect freshness, and how to carry those choices from vine to cellar without overworking the material.