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Producer name: Domaine Rémi Jobard

Wines:

2024 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 2028 - 2044

Tasting notes: The 2024 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru is more tightly wound than the Narvaux, demanding more coaxing, with touches of sea spray and green apple, just a hint of lychee. The palate is well balanced with a silver thread of acidity. Lightly spiced, with hints of grilled almond and hazelnuts emerging towards the finish that puts the Narvaux (good as that is!) in its place. Give this two or three years in bottle.

Producer Commentary:
2024 Meursault Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 2027 - 2037

Tasting notes: The 2024 Meursault Narvaux has one of the best aromatic profiles I tasted from Rémi Jobard, with vivacious citrus fruit laced with crushed stone, a little Puligny-like in style. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, effervescent in style with a confident, spicy finish that lingers. Excellent.

Producer Commentary:
2024 Monthélie Sur La Velle 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 2027 - 2034

Tasting notes: The 2024 Monthélie Sur La Velle 1er Cru has a light nose with green apple and gooseberry scents, nicely defined although the Santenay Sous Roche has a little more sophistication. The palate is bright and lively with a keen thread of acidity. Pretty, with a dash of white pepper and a deft reduction towards the finish. Give it a year in bottle.

Producer Commentary:
2024 Santenay Sous Roche
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 2027 - 2035

Tasting notes: The 2024 Santenay Sous Roche has an appealing nose with lime, linden and faint touches of crushed stone. The palate is fresh on the entry with a keen line of acidity, lightly spiced, commendable weight on the mid-palate and a satisfying length on the finish. Worth seeking out.

Producer Commentary:
2024 Bourgogne Côte D'or Blanc Vieilles Vignes
Color: White

Score: 85.0

Drinking window: 2026 - 2028

Tasting notes: The 2024 Bourgogne Côte d'Or Blanc Vieilles Vignes has a light, minty bouquet. The palate is straightforward with decent weight, even if it just lacks a bit of precision and complexity on the finish. Drink over the next couple of years.

Producer Commentary:
2022 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2025 - 2034

Tasting notes: Rémi Jobard’s 2022 Meursault Sous la Velle is terrific. Bright and refreshing, it is an ideal warm-weather wine to drink with this cuisine. White orchard fruit, mint, jasmine and clean saline notes abound. What a total delight.

Producer Commentary:
2023 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 2028 - 2042

Tasting notes: The 2023 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru has a fragrant bouquet with well-defined scents of yellow plum, pear and peach skin alongside neatly integrated oak. The palate is well balanced, quite tensile and focused with a fine bead of acidity and a linear, almost conservative finish that suggests one is best waiting another two or three years. But this is promising. 

Producer Commentary:
2023 Meursault Les Chevalières
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2026 - 2038

Tasting notes: The 2023 Meursault Les Chevalières has a more complex and engaging bouquet than the En Larule, nicely defined and focused with orange pith and chamomile scents. The palate is fresh and vibrant on the entry with just a soupçon of orange rind. This is quite a delicate Meursault but it feels long and tender on the finish. Worth investigating.

Producer Commentary:
2023 Meursault en Larule
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 2025 - 2030

Tasting notes: The 2023 Meursault En Larule has a powerful bouquet with rose water and peach skin scents. The palate has a soft-textured opening and perhaps just lacks a little acidity and bite, though it has an attractive, tropical-tinged, peachy finish. 

Producer Commentary:
2003 Puligny Montrachet Referts
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromatic nose combines very ripe peach, nuts and minerals. Juicy and fruit-driven, with the peach and soft citrus flavors nicely firmed by the wine's minerality. More steely and lighter on its feet than the Maltroie. Finishes with lovely subtle length.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2019 Meursault Poruzots Dessus 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2030

Tasting notes: The 2019 Meursault Poruzots Dessus 1er Cru displays attractive tropical notes of passion fruit and guava on the nose, maybe obscuring some Meursault typicité but you won’t complain too loudly. The palate is well balanced with that tropical theme continuing, very smooth in texture with nectarine, Clementine, peach and apricot towards the seductive finish. Fine, but more early drinking fare. 

Producer Commentary:
2019 Monthélie Les Vignes Rondes 1er Cru
Color: Red

Score: 86.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2025

Tasting notes: The 2019 Monthélie Les Vignes Rondes 1er Cru offers straightforward, earthy red fruit on the nose that maybe lacks a bit of flair. The palate is well balanced with slightly rustic tannins and then it runs out of ideas about two-thirds of the way through. 

Producer Commentary:
2019 Meursault Luraule
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2029

Tasting notes: The 2019 Meursault Luraule has an attractive nose with more intensity and personality compared with the Narvaux, honeysuckle and jasmine combining with citrus fruit. The palate is well balanced with energy and nerve. No, it is not complex and lacks some mineralité, especially on the finish, but at least there is drive and focus here. 

Producer Commentary:
2011 Saint Romain
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2011 Saint Romain, from Jobard's negoce label, is very pretty. Energetic and wiry, it shows lovely tension in its expressive white stone fruits, flowers and bright, saline notes. This gracious, medium-bodied white will be at its best over the next few years.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and followed [maybe found?] the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and tighter.
2019 Bourgogne Côte D’or Vieilles Vignes
Color: White

Score: 86.0

Drinking window: 2021 - 2024

Tasting notes: The 2019 Bourgogne Côte d’Or Vieilles Vignes has a little more intensity than the Bourgogne Blanc, though I still find it very simple. The palate is balanced with fresh red apples, a little more salinity than the Bourgogne Blanc with a touch of sour lemon on the finish. 

Producer Commentary:
2019 Volnay Santenots 1er Cru
Color: Red

Score: 86.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2025

Tasting notes: The 2019 Volnay Santenots 1er Cru has a rustic bouquet, quite animally and maybe showing a sign of Brettanomyces? The palate is fleshy on the entry but this Volnay is missing backbone and grip, falling away rapidly on the finish. Average. 

Producer Commentary:
2010 Volnay Santenots 1er Cru
Color: Red

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 2012 - 2016

Tasting notes: The 2010 Volnay Santenots shows lovely richness and depth in a medium-bodied style. Freshly cut flowers, sweet red berries, spices and licorice all flesh out in the glass. This is a vibrant, floral Volnay best suited for drinking over the next few years. 

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes the 2010s as having the richness of the 2009s and the elegance of the 2008s. I suppose that's as good a description as any. Jobard began bringing in his 2010s on September 21. Yields are down a whopping 40-50%, but in exchange Jobard has a superb set of wines that are rich yet not at all heavy. It is a vintage in which the personality of each of these sites comes through in spades. As I mentioned last year, Jobard is among the small but growing number of white Burgundy producers experimenting with foudres, which seems to work especially well with his wines. The Narvaux, Genevrières, Poruzots are partly aged in foudre, while the Charmes is done entirely in foudre.
2009 Meursault Narvaux (Foudre)
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 2014 - 2014

Tasting notes: The 2009 Meursault Narvaux (foudre) impresses for its energy and tension. Bright citrus, lemon oil and bright, razor-like mineral notes are all very much alive in the glass. This is a great effort from a wine that has not been commercially released yet.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2011 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. Very ripe aromas of yellow peach, orange zest, nutmeg and cinnamon. Supple, fat and ripe but with a firm edge of acidity and some spicy oak in need of a few years of bottle age to harmonize. Classically dry wine with good energy. This has filled in nicely since I tasted it from barrel a year ago.

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations.I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished.Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance.The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s.Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite.The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage.The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized.Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees.But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
2012 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, bright, green-tinged yellow. Inviting aromas of stone fruits, lime blossom and white flowers. Supple, fresh and concentrated, with ripe acidity framing the floral and stone fruit flavors. Finishes saline and dry, with a slight acid bite. This is 13.3% natural alcohol.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year. Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well. And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s." He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way. "The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming." Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak. Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
2016 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Musky candied yellow fruits on the nose. Supple, sweet wine with a musky apple flavor dominating the palate. Finishes with a slightly dry edge and good length. 

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2003 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 86.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of nuts, vanilla and spices, plus a whiff of acorn. Fat and full, with elevated alcohol currently blurring the wine's sweetness of fruit. But not at all flat.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2009 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale color. Pure, delicate yet very ripe aromas of soft citrus fruits and honey. Juicy and brisk; in fact a bit skinny and lacking the flesh of the year. Spicy oak current dominates fruit. A bit hard-edged today but this is still tight.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2004 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 86.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Reticent limey nose offers moderate intensity. This came across as a bit leaner and less ripe than a couple of very good negociant wines that preceded it (I rated the floral, lemony Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chaumees 89(+?), while the rounder, sweeter but also very pure and shapely Meursault Clos du Cromin merited 89 points), with a slight herbal quality carrying through the middle palate and finish. Juicy and firm but a bit dry on the back. Perhaps in an awkward stage.

Producer Commentary:
2014 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2017 - 2024

Tasting notes: Pale lemon-yellow. Fresh scent of lemon zest. Firm and clean in the mouth, with its ripe flavors of white peach, citrus fruits and white flowers showing a lovely balance of sweetness and acidity. Almost creamy for 2014 but finishes with excellent grip. (Jobard's two Bourgogne Blanc bottlings are both well worth buying, with the one simply labeled Bourgogne Blanc--the more expensive of the two--showing strong yellow fruit, spice and hazelnut aromas and flavors with excellent intensity and lift.)

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard was an early harvester in 2014, picking between September 10 and 17. He told me that there was a bit of botrytis at the end but that he had brought in all of his Meursault grapes by then. He bottled his ‘14s in February, as is his usual practice, and although he chaptalized a bit, he told me that none of his 2014s are higher than 13% alcohol. Jobard stressed that he prefers his 2014s to his 2015s today.
1998 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 85.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Ripe, fruit-driven aromas of lemon and pineapple. A juicy wine with moderate flesh; slightly syrupy pineapple flavor. Has intensity but finishes with a slight bitterness.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
1999 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of lemon, lime, pineapple and flowers. Intense flavors of ripe citrus fruits and stones, nicely shaped by firm acidity. Very nicely balanced '99, and concentrated for a village wine from this prolific vintage.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
2013 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright, light yellow. Aromas of orange juice and lemon, plus a whiff of malic acidity. Juicy and moderately dense if on the lean side, showing Meursault-typical flavors of soft citrus fruits and spices. Good material here.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year.Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well.And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s."He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way."The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming."Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak.Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
2009 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Musky spices and orange on the nose. Then sweet, tactile and nicely delineated in the mouth, with enough ripe acidity to frame and lift the soft citrus flavors. Lots of material here, and classic Meursault.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2019 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2026

Tasting notes: The 2019 Meursault Sous La Velle was showing a bit of reduction on the nose and missed the energy of the Luraule. The palate is better with a pleasant sapid opening, good acidity, but missing a little mineralité towards the finish. Not bad, but overall this would be recommended for early drinking. 

Producer Commentary:
1996 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Exotic aroma of mandarin orange. Very ripe but spicy and firm, with a flavor of orange juice. Finishes with very good length and grip.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
2005 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, green-tinged color. Lively aromas of lime, minerals and white flowers. Very rich and supple, with citrus flavors perked up by a note of white pepper. Finishes smooth.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
1997 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 86.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Leesy, reduced nose hints at lemon. Fat, ripe and leesy, with spice and butter notes. Quite rich but seems a bit heavy today, with soft acids.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
1998 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Quintessential Meursault aromas of lemon and hazelnut. Moderately rich, lemony flavor offers good concentration and decent grip. Still holding a lot of gas.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
1997 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: High-toned but pure aromas of citrus fruits, stone and spice. Bright fruit offers good density for the vintage. Finishes ripe, fresh and persistent.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
2015 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very ripe, slightly exotic nose verges on pineapple. A plush, velvety fruit bomb on the palate but with more mineral support than Jobard's two Bourgogne Blanc cuvées. Much less exotic on the tactile, rather suave back half, finishing with strong lemony fruit and excellent persistence. (I found the soft citrus-dominated Bourgogne Blanc Vignes Nouvelles rather powerful and sweet-verging-on-heavy but the chewy, broad Bourgogne Blanc displayed Meursault-like breadth to its pure yellow fruit flavors and finishes with excellent breadth and spicy length, offering 88-point potential.)

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard harvested his Chardonnay between September 3 and 9, reminding me that he picks earlier than his father did. The crop level was a bit higher in 2015 than it was the previous year, when he made half of a normal crop due to hail. “The 2015s are very ripe, rich and dense but they’re not pineappley,” Jobard told me. “They will be good to drink young but probably have the material to age. It’s a very ripe, fruity vintage, and the wines will take on a honeyed character as they age," he predicted, adding that his 2009s were heavier wines by comparison. The malolactic fermentations mostly finished in January but a few of the wines still had a bit of sugar left to ferment.
2006 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 87.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very ripe, aromatic nose of peach, quinine and spice. Dense, sweet and showy, with modest grip and acidity. The note of quinine carries through in the mouth. Finishes spicy and long, with some alcoholic warmth. There was a bit more botrytis here, said Jobard, who picked these vines earlier in the progression of vineyards than he normally does.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
2013 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2018 - 2024

Tasting notes: Full lemon-yellow color. Vibrant aromas of orange and peach are lifted by a floral topnote and complicated by nut oils. A step up in texture from the Bourgogne in glyceral extract but with sound limey acidity giving the wine a light touch. Very nicely balanced village wine with enticing salinity and a firm mineral finish.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2000 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Green-tinged color. Lemon and lime zest, mint and stones on the nose. Juicy and easygoing, with musky notes of lime, flowers and mint. Reminded me of Alsace riesling. Not especially complex but will offer considerable early appeal.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
2014 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Clear light yellow. Inviting, nuanced aromas of lime, peach, clove and almond flower. Rich, chewy, saline and harmonious; seems lower in acidity and more open-knit than the 2013 version. A real fruit bomb but the saline, chewy finish shows a positive dry edge.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2004 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Soft citrus and hazelnut aromas. Sweet on the attack, then ripe, fat and clean in the middle, with a enticing orange oil flavor and good mineral cut. Juicy acids frame and extend the fruit.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
2002 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Orange and pear aromas. Juicy and fruit-driven, with soft citrus flavors firmed by minerality. Nicely supple wine with moderate complexity.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2010 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2010 Meursault Sous La Velle presents an attractive tapestry of ripe, generous fruit supported by persistent notes of saline minerality. The richness of the year is very nice balanced in this mid-weight, gracious white. I especially like the way the wine fleshes out on the finish. The 2010 can be enjoyed today, but I don't see it having the depth to continue to develop positively for more than a handful of years. 

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes the 2010s as having the richness of the 2009s and the elegance of the 2008s. I suppose that's as good a description as any. Jobard began bringing in his 2010s on September 21. Yields are down a whopping 40-50%, but in exchange Jobard has a superb set of wines that are rich yet not at all heavy. It is a vintage in which the personality of each of these sites comes through in spades. As I mentioned last year, Jobard is among the small but growing number of white Burgundy producers experimenting with foudres, which seems to work especially well with his wines. The Narvaux, Genevrières, Poruzots are partly aged in foudre, while the Charmes is done entirely in foudre.
2009 Meursault Narvaux (Normal)
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2014 - 2014

Tasting notes: Jobard's 2009 Meursault Narvaux is rich, round and utterly seductive. Dried pear, smoke and mint all flesh out in a radiant, deeply expressive wine loaded with character. Even though the straight Narvaux was aged in standard French oak barrels as opposed to casks, it still comes across as quite youthful and fresh. There is a lot to like here.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2010 Meursault Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2010 Meursault Narvaux (from Narvaux Dessous) is another forward, generous wine. Here the fruit takes on shades of considerable richness, at times heading toward the tropical end of the spectrum. The overall sense of harmony is terrific, even if this is a fairly bold and one-dimensional wine. 

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes the 2010s as having the richness of the 2009s and the elegance of the 2008s. I suppose that's as good a description as any. Jobard began bringing in his 2010s on September 21. Yields are down a whopping 40-50%, but in exchange Jobard has a superb set of wines that are rich yet not at all heavy. It is a vintage in which the personality of each of these sites comes through in spades. As I mentioned last year, Jobard is among the small but growing number of white Burgundy producers experimenting with foudres, which seems to work especially well with his wines. The Narvaux, Genevrières, Poruzots are partly aged in foudre, while the Charmes is done entirely in foudre.
2014 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, bright yellow. Crystallized lemon and lime give lift to the nose. Less vibrant, fruity and sweet than the Luraule but this is more powerful, classically dry and mineral-driven and shows lovely cut. Finishes with solid stony minerality and excellent length.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2016 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, bright yellow. Good gingery lift to the aromas of apple and minerals. Conveys a nicely dry impression, showing good energy to its apple, spice and mineral flavors. Very Meursault, and nicely concentrated. Jobard noted that production here was down 70% in 2016.

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2013 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 2019 - 2025

Tasting notes: (these vines are about 50 years old, according to Charles Jobard): Bright yellow. Peach, citrus fruits and honey on the lucid nose. Densely packed and youthfully tight, with strong mineral-driven acidity framing the citrus, spice and hazelnut oil flavors of this saline midweight. The firm-edged finish shows a pronounced crushed stone character.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2009 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (just the second vintage for this bottling, from 50-year-old vines): Good bright pale yellow. Expressive nose combines lemon, grapefruit, hazelnut, minerals and wild herbs. At once sweet, dense and penetrating, with an enticing balance of acidity and minerality for the year. Rich and complete Meursault, with a very dry, vibrant finish leaving the palate coated with dusty stone. An excellent showing. Jobard notes that in 2008 he was among the last to pick in Meursault, while in 2009 he was one of the first.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2010 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (almost half of this cuvee is aging in foudre): Bright yellow. Very ripe peach and a whiff of banana on the nose. Fat and glyceral for 2010, but with an impression of strong dry extract and an edge of malic acidity giving this very rich wine good shape on the back. Ripe yellow fruit notes dominate.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2015 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2018 - 2024

Tasting notes: (these vines are about 55 years old on average, but Jobard told me he's not sure about their age since they were already old when he purchased them in 2008; harvested with potential alcohol of 14.3%): Bright, pale yellow with green highlights. Green apple, pear and crushed stone on the nose. Juicy, fine-grained wine with good lift to its rich stone fruit and spice flavors. This lively Meursault should offer considerable early appeal owing to its balance.

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2008 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (this is a new wine for Jobard, from a parcel of vines around 50 years of age in Narvaux Dessous) Soft citrus and spice scents. Rich, creamy and sweet, but with lively acidity giving relief to the nearly unctuous flavors. Very Meursault in character, and very sexy. The soft citrus and spice flavors carry through to the persistent, very tactile finish.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2012 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright, light yellow. Fresh apricot, mint and a hint of wild herbs on the nose. Dense, sappy and young, but already showing lovely inner-mouth perfume to the flavors of fresh stone fruits and crushed stone. Strong acidity nicely buffers the wine's subtle sweetness and extends the stony, rising finish. Showing well now but this very youthful wine is built to age.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year.Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well.And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s."He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way."The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming."Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak.Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
2015 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (from 55-year-old vines): Ripe, sexy scents of peach, nutmeg and brown butter. Plush and silky but with surprising energy and definition to its ripe orchard fruit flavors. Shows more mineral energy than the Luraule..

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard harvested his Chardonnay between September 3 and 9, reminding me that he picks earlier than his father did. The crop level was a bit higher in 2015 than it was the previous year, when he made half of a normal crop due to hail. “The 2015s are very ripe, rich and dense but they’re not pineappley,” Jobard told me. “They will be good to drink young but probably have the material to age. It’s a very ripe, fruity vintage, and the wines will take on a honeyed character as they age," he predicted, adding that his 2009s were heavier wines by comparison. The malolactic fermentations mostly finished in January but a few of the wines still had a bit of sugar left to ferment.
2009 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright, pale yellow. Knockout lemon and stone nose. Broad on the attack, then sweet and intensely flavored, with a compellingly tactile quality and full ripeness. The strong citrus flavors linger impressively on the back end. Jobard made less than the allowable yield but the crop level was nevertheless a healthy 55 hectoliters per hectare here. Jobard made an approximate blend of the final wine in my glass by combining juice from foudre and piece

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2019 Meursault Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2028

Tasting notes: The 2019 Meursault Narvaux has a very tight nose, less flattering than the Chevalières, stonier and perhaps more complex. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity. Notes of tinned apricot and light peachy notes, a dash of spice towards the finish, though it does require a little more length and nerve. 

Producer Commentary:
2011 Meursault Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 2014 - 2014

Tasting notes: Jobard's 2011 Meursault Narvaux impresses for its sheer breadth and ample presence on the palate. Today the 2011 is incredibly tight, with flavors that aren't fully developed. Still, there impeccable class, balance and integrity in the Narvaux. Gentle hints of spices, dried pear and minerals blossom on the finish. This is a gorgeous wine from Jobard, but patience is required.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2010 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright yellow with a green tinge. Subdued nose hints at fruit salad, honey and spicy oak. Fat and sweet on entry, then tactile and rather powerful in the middle, with slightly aggressive flavors of fruit salad and honey. Here the malo has just finished so the young wine shows a slightly aggressive quality. But there's excellent material here.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2011 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Orange and lemon oil, minerals and a whiff of oak on the reticent nose. Chewy and a bit youthfully aggressive, with dusty yellow fruit and fruit pit flavors dominating. Finishes quite dry, with a hint of lemon peel. A tad edgy today.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March.This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages:"the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008."Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range.Production was down 40% from a normal year.Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes.The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard.He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee.Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2009 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, bright yellow. Reticent, pure aromas of white peach and lemon. Intensely flavored and weightless, with nicely integrated acidity giving shape and grip to the citrus and spice flavors. Nothing heavy about this bright 2009.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2006 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Rich aromas of mirabelle, hazelnut and smoke. Very ripe, lush and fruity, conveying more of an impression of sweetness than the Chevaliers. The mirabelle quality carries through to the dry, subtle finish.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2007 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very pale color. Fruity citric nose still seems stunted from the bottling. The ripe stone fruit flavors are similarly restrained, but the wine showed an increasingly round texture with aeration. Finishes broad and classically dry, with very good acid/mineral cut. Still quite youthfully tight and a bit disjointed in the early going.

Producer Commentary:
Among the new developments here: Jobard has 77 ares of Meursault Narvaux as of 2008, and beginning with 2011 the domain will be officially organic. On my June visit I focused on the 2007s from bottle as the 2008s were in mid-malo. Jobard described 2007 as a generous year, having yielded wines with "a lot of nervosite but also a lot of material." But he would not have said that during their elevage, he told me. "Early on, I compared 2007 to 2004, but now I think they're more like the 2005s in their length on the palate, even if they're not quite as hard on the attack," he explained. Jobard began harvesting on September 1, with what he described as "correct" sugar levels. He wondered out loud if he would have benefitted from picking five days later-or would have gotten flat wines. Based on my tasting in June, he made a good choice.
2013 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (tasted from a 2011 barrel): Pale, bright yellow. Lemon, fresh orange juice and sexy oak spices on the nose. Dense but light on its feet, showing a touch of sweetness and enticing floral lift. Finishes long and vibrant, still with a touch of unconverted malic acidity. Excellent potential here.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year. Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well. And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s." He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way. "The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming." Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak. Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
2012 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, bright yellow. High-pitched aromas of crystallized citrus peel and powdered stone. Quite tight and lean today, with penetrating acidity keeping the firm citrus and talc flavors in the deep background today. This rather saline Meursault will need bottle aging to develop more personality and length.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year.Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well.And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s."He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way."The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming."Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak.Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
2009 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Slightly reduced nose hints at flint, wet stone and honey. Rich but reticent, with citrus and crushed stone flavors dominating. Boasts good lemony lift but also finishes with a faint phenolic edge and some alcoholic warmth. Does this backward wine have enough supporting flavor for balance?

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2011 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, green-tinged yellow. Very ripe aromas of apricot, grapefruit and honey. Fat, lush and harmonious, with just enough acidity to maintain its shape. Finishes dusty and tactile, with subtle, building length. As with the 2012 version, a note of underripe grapefruit gives grip and bite to the finish.

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations.I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished.Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance.The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s.Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite.The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage.The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized.Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees.But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
2016 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (Jobard picked a full crop of grapes at the beginning of the harvest): Sexy scents of lemon drop and wild herbs. Tactile, juicy and spicy in the mouth, showing excellent lift and mineral energy to the flavors of citrus fruits, ginger and minerals. This wine is not lower in acidity after its malolactic fermentation than the 2015 was, noted Jobard. Finishes lively and long, with an intriguing saline nuance. A lovely vin de terroir in the making.

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2014 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (my sample came from Jobard's earliest Stockinger foudre): Inviting aromas and flavors of tangerine, minerals, nut oils and smoked meat. Tactile, dense and fat if a bit youthfully unformed. Ripe but quite dry; this really coats the mouth and lingers on the aftertaste.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2013 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 2020 - 2029

Tasting notes: Pale-medium yellow. Bright aromas of lemon, lime, peach skin and nut oil. Densely packed and tactile but with lovely minty lift and energy to its lightly saline fruit salad flavors. Tactile and slightly phenolic but still shows a lovely light touch. Finishes with resounding minerality. Half of this wine is from vines between 25 and 30 years of age, the other half from 85-year-old vines.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2015 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright, healthy yellow. Very ripe aromas of peach and apricot come across as a bit more evolved than those of the Poruzots but then this barrel finished its sugars earlier and is a bit lower in SO2 now. Sappy and concentrated, conveying a strong impression of chewy dry extract to its very ripe, rich yellow fruit flavors. Hard to assess with confidence but certainly very rich. These last few wines are carrying close to 14% alcohol.

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard harvested his Chardonnay between September 3 and 9, reminding me that he picks earlier than his father did. The crop level was a bit higher in 2015 than it was the previous year, when he made half of a normal crop due to hail. “The 2015s are very ripe, rich and dense but they’re not pineappley,” Jobard told me. “They will be good to drink young but probably have the material to age. It’s a very ripe, fruity vintage, and the wines will take on a honeyed character as they age," he predicted, adding that his 2009s were heavier wines by comparison. The malolactic fermentations mostly finished in January but a few of the wines still had a bit of sugar left to ferment.
1996 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Superbly perfumed nose of lime, orange peel, butter and clove; comes across as less minerally than the Poruzots. Chewy and tactile, with more material to buffer the acids of the vintage. Actually quite closed in the mouth. The finish stains the palate. Here, too, I get slightly worrying finishing notes of resin and caramel.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
2008 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. Expressive, ripe aromas of orange, lemon, minerals and spices. In a distinctly creamy-sweet and pliant style, offering considerable appeal already. Very attractive and rich wine: this would make a terrific aperitif now but could also be held for five or six years. The alcohol here is close to 14%.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
1999 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pure, perfumed aromas of lime blossom and grapefruit. Juicy and precise, with penetrating flavors of citrus skin, grapefruit and stone. This has depth and cut. Solidly structured, persistent and subtle. I'd cellar this for a good six to eight years.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
1998 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Exotic, oaky aromas of orange juice, lime oil and minerals. Rich, sweet and generous; sweet on the attack, full in the middle, then minerally, firm and spicy on the finish. Not yet especially complex but offers lovely sweetness and early appeal.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2006 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Good pale yellow. Ripe aromas of citrus and stone fruits and ginger. Fat, full and rich, with flavors of citrus fruit, pineapple and spice and an impression of elevated alcohol. Finishes tactile, minerally and rich, with atypical spiciness for this cuvee and just enough acidity to maintain balance.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
2005 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of lime blossom, mint and stone. Large-scaled, rich, broad and dry, with ripe flavors of lime and powdered stone. A silky, mouthcoating wine with impressive volume. Offers an attractive combination of power and elegance but this premier cru really demands a good four or five years of cellaring. Finishes with a lingering flavor of crushed stone.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
2000 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale greenish color. Reticent but pure aromas of lime, lemon peel, lemon custard and minerals. A step up in intensity over the lieux-dit and Poruzots: penetrating, racy and pure, with firm acidity for the cru and solid structure. This is shapely and fine, with good power for the vintage. Finishes with a mineral edge and fine length.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
2009 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. Orange blossom, lemon and a whiff of oak spice on the aromatic nose. Juicy, pure and intense but youthfully closed for this wine at this early stage of its evolution. The citrus-dominated flavors and firm minerality contribute to the tight impression in the mid-palate, but there's plenty of gras apparent on the suave, bright finish.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2003 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Higher-pitched aromas of mint, spices and nuts. Round, silky and sweet, with rich flavors of citrus fruits and hazelnut. Like the Chevalieres, this has retained some terroir character even in the extreme conditions of 2003. A tad dry on the back end, but not noticeably hot, especially considering its near-14% alcohol.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
2001 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (13.7% natural alcohol; finished its malo very early) Lime and ginger on the very ripe nose. Thick, spicy and deep, with lovely acidity and cut giving the wine an enticing vibrancy. Bracing flavors of grapefruit and lemon. Very long, dry, palate-coating finish.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2007 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Lemon, lime and spices on the nose. Juicy and spicy on the palate, with an insidious intensity to the soft citrus, mineral and crushed stone flavors. Today this comes across as riper but perhaps less sharply focused than the Poruzots. Boasts lovely mineral spine, but doesn't show quite the finishing bite of the Poruzots. (The bigger, richer Charmes still had some unconverted malic acidity.)

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2009 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, green-tinged yellow. Captivating, high-pitched aromas of lime oil, crushed stone and flowers. Juicy, tight and penetrating, with lovely clarity and class to its flavors of lime, minerals and stone. At once wiry and dense; this distinctly low-fat, youthfully imploded version of Meursault finishes with lovely purity and floral lift. This really benefited from Jobard's decision to harvest early in 2009.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2011 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Sweet aromas of orange peel, lemon, pineapple, fresh apricot and hazelnut; this could only be Meursault. Silky, spicy and sweet, with a fine grain to the orange and spice flavors. Nicely balanced and quite stylish. Finishes long and classically dry. Strong for the vintage.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March.This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages:"the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008."Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range.Production was down 40% from a normal year.Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes.The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard.He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee.Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2010 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Perfumed aromas of grapefruit, peach and nut oil; smells thick and bright. Then wonderfully sweet and fat in the mouth, with ripe acidity framing the superripe peachy fruit. Powerful but fine-grained wine with an almost tannic edge. Like a couple of these wines, this still shows a faint malic quality.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2000 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (like the Charmes, this is roughly 14% alcohol) Very ripe aromas of lemon, lime, minerals and spicy, vanillin oak. Juicy, citric and penetrating, with lovely vivacity and mineral cut. Still a bit youthfully tough owing to its strong mineral spine but not hard. Finishes very long and strong. May well merit a higher score with three or four years of aging.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2002 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Complex nose melds orange, crushed stone, oatmeal and oak spices. Rich, dense and sweet, with very good breadth and healthy framing acidity. This offers volume and power and finishes with excellent subtle persistence. A lovely 2002 that should really be laid down for five or six years.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
1998 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very reticent nose hints at minerals and green apple. Juicy and tangy in the mouth, with flavors of ripe peach and lime, and an exotic hint of orange blossom. Firm and nicely delineated. Comes across as fresher than the '97. Subtle, lingering back end. Showing well.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
2012 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright pale yellow. Fruit-driven aromas of lemon peel, orange juice, white peach and pineapple seem a bit youthfully stunted. Tactile and suave in the mouth, conveying a strong impression of extract to the citrus, spice and saline flavors. The broadest of these 2012s but also lively and salty on the very long, spicy finish. I'd give this wine at least five years.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year.Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well.And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s."He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way."The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming."Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak.Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
2011 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, bright yellow. Fresh apricot perked up by lime and herbs on the nose. Enters the mouth with an enticing touch of sweetness, then turns juicy and tight; less silky today than the Poruzot. Finishes understated, perfumed and long, with vibrant lemon fruit and saline minerality. A faint acid/tannin edge calls for a minimum of three or four years of cellaring.

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations.I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished.Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance.The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s.Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite.The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage.The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized.Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees.But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
1997 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: More classic, spicier aromas of lime, orange peel and minerals. Lively and penetrating; by far the freshest yet of these '97s. Firm, minerally and thoroughly dry (the last two wines still have a bit of unfermented sugar). A wine of lovely finesse.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
2003 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Complex, superripe nose combines orange oil and hazelnut. Very rich and sweet but with enough balancing acidity to make it work. This really boasts the sucrosite and thickness of texture of the vintage's better examples. Finishes quite long and a bit youthfully aggressive. My question here could well be applied to many other 2003s in this dense, very rich style: will the site's inherent complexity come through with further barrel aging, or will the wine always be blurred by its substantial alcohol? This is close to 14%, but then that level of ripeness is typical for Jobard's Genevrieres.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2013 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: High-toned aromas of soft citrus fruits and spices. Sweet, spicy and rich, showing excellent lift to its orchard and stone fruit flavors. Penetrating, juicy wine with a spicy, long finish. But hard to assess with confidence today as there's still a lot of malic acidity remaining. This was the first chardonnay vineyard Jobard harvested in 2013 (he actually began with his Volnay Santenots pinot).

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year. Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well. And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s." He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way. "The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming." Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak. Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
1998 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Note of crab apple on the nose; seems more evolved than the last wine. Sweet and intensely flavored; superripe and fat for the year. But despite the unconverted malic acidity, I don't get an impression of real vibrancy. Too unevolved to assess with confidence today.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
1997 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Ripe apple, lemon and minerals, plus an exotic hint of dried apricot. A huge, roasted fruit bomb in the mouth; the superripe confit character and 14.5+% alcohol makes this seem sweet, but Jobard assured me it has less than two grams per liter residual sugar. An impressive vendange tardive style of Meursault.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
1996 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Vibrant, deep aromas of grapefruit and lemon oil. Tangy and penetrating thanks to strong acids, but the sweetest and silkiest of these '96s. The finish starts slowly, then builds relentlessly. This is strong on the attack and on the finish, and is the most complete of these '96s.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
2006 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Good pale, green-tinged color. Ripe, sweet aromas of lemon, lime and vanilla. A sweet, fat big boy with uncanny energy and typicity for such a rich, ripe Meursault. Finishes with very good minty lift and excellent length. Jobard hasn't used chemical fertilizers since '94 and he believes that this has slowed down his vines' maturing process and allowed him to harvest his Genevrieres at more reasonable alcohol levels. In the mid-'90s, he told me, this cuvee was routinely 14+%.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
1998 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Exotic, rather advanced aromas of apricot, smoke, honey and damp earth; actually seemed to grow a bit fresher with aeration. Sweet, fat and voluminous, with superripe flavors of honey, licorice and barley sugar suggesting a percentage of botrytized berries. Impressive for its opulence but lacks vibrancy; the dull damp earth quality repeats in the mouth and on the slightly fiery finish. As I recall, this seemed evolved last spring even before it began its malolactic fermentation.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2005 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (alcohol close to 14%) Good pale color. Smoky, reduced nose shows a faint lactic quality to go with its citrus and baked bread aromas. Fat, sweet and full in the mouth, with rich citrus flavors supported by solid minerality. A big, plump, compellingly ripe wine with excellent fruit and a long, suave finish. At this point in our tasting, Jobard told me that he is usually among the later pickers in the village but that in 2005 he was among the first.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
1999 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Highly aromatic nose of quince, lemon and hazelnut. Superrich and sweet but seems far fresher than the '98 at the same stage. Exotic, almost candied pineapple flavor. A wine of great sucrosity, very long on the palate. This will be superb if it takes its freshness into the bottle.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2004 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Musky, slightly reduced aromas of orange, vanilla and hazelnut. Rich, sweet and supple, with enticing soft citrus flavors. Comes across as rather soft, but also quite dry and slow to evolve. Best today on the long finish. Very stylish wine.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
2006 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Good pale color. Deeply pitched aromas of citrus fruit, hazelnut and vanillin oak; a bit less pristine than the Genevrieres. The fattest and most glyceral of these young 2006s, with thick, tactile flavors of musky citrus fruits and licorice. This boasts excellent volume but is less expressive today in the middle palate than the Genevrieres. More classically dry on the back.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
2003 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pure, discreet nose hints at nuts and vanilla; not especially expressive but has lift. Then fat and broad in the mouth, showing impressive volume but less flavor interest, and less sweetness, today than the Genevrieres.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2007 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale color. Tight, sharply focused aromas of soft citrus fruits, crushed stone and white flowers. Quite backward on the palate but more pristine than the Poruzots, with terrific juicy precision to the suave flavors of orange and peach. Plenty of personality here, but this is a wine that impresses most for its subtlety. Finishes very long and vibrant, with terrific grip. Still quite tight though.

Producer Commentary:
Among the new developments here: Jobard has 77 ares of Meursault Narvaux as of 2008, and beginning with 2011 the domain will be officially organic. On my June visit I focused on the 2007s from bottle as the 2008s were in mid-malo. Jobard described 2007 as a generous year, having yielded wines with "a lot of nervosite but also a lot of material." But he would not have said that during their elevage, he told me. "Early on, I compared 2007 to 2004, but now I think they're more like the 2005s in their length on the palate, even if they're not quite as hard on the attack," he explained. Jobard began harvesting on September 1, with what he described as "correct" sugar levels. He wondered out loud if he would have benefitted from picking five days later-or would have gotten flat wines. Based on my tasting in June, he made a good choice.
2008 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (14.15% alcohol) "always the highest," notes Jobard): Candied citrus peel on the ripe, inviting nose. Then rich, sweet and large-scaled; quite full in the mouth. This creamy, fully ripe wine is not at all acid-deficient but I'd still want to drink it on the early side.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2009 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Good pale yellow. Pure but reticent aromas of citrus oil, lemon ice and vanillin oak. Rich and sweet on entry, then powerful and a bit more aggressive in the middle, with noteworthy density and ripeness to the citrus peel and orange oil flavors. Finishes broad and long, with the slight youthful aggressiveness of the vintage.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2004 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of lemon, spices, nut oil and vanillin oak offer good lift. The fattest, sweetest and fullest of these young 2004s, with impressive volume for the vintage, if not the grip of the most minerally examples. Offers lovely balance and length.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
1999 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Apple, lemon and lime blossom on the nose. Intensely flavored but a bit hardened by the carbonic gas. Rather powerful for Genevrieres, with lovely purity of flavor. This is long and gripping considering the yield of 60 hectoliters per hectare.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2010 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 94.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright yellow. High-pitched aromas of grapefruit, flowers and spices; smells less exotically ripe than the Genevrieres. Intensely flavored and precise, given cut by penetrating minerality and perfectly integrated acidity. I might have picked this blind as a Perrieres. The reverberating dusty finish is sappy and saline without being phenolic. Jobard got just 25 hectoliters per hectare from these vines in 2010, which goes a long way toward explaining the sheer concentration of this extremely promising wine.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2003 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 87.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Smoke, vanilla and a whiff of mint on the nose, with more of a roasted fruit character than the Genevrieres. Large-scaled but a bit sullen today. Showing less fruit flavor and texture than the Genevrieres, along with a faint alcoholic bitterness on the finish. This is very 2003 in style.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
1997 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Complex, very subtle nose of pit fruits, lemon oak and oak char. Extremely rich, round and layered; slightly lower in acidity than the Genevrieres and perceptibly sweeter, but Jobard says it's dry. A huge wine, with 14.8% alcohol and superb mouthfilling texture.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
2002 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Complex, vibrant, pure aromas of lemon, orange and crushed stone, with good minty cut. Big, rich and complex; a major mouthful of Meursault with an exhilarating sugar/acid balance. Hazelnut and saline notes complement the intense citrus and pineapple fruit flavors. Very long and bracing on the finish, with a tactile chewy quality suggesting strong extract. Very impressive.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2004 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (from a parcel just below Perrieres; these degenerating vines, planted in about 1975 with the SO4 clone, give smaller grapes and earlier ripeness; one of three barrels were new) Ripe, bright aromas of lemon cream and vanillin oak. Big, rich and broad, with an enveloping texture and a superb sugar/acid balance. This has power and size but remains bright and focused. A round, deep, classic Charmes that finishes broad and long, with lemon and stone nuances. 

Producer Commentary:
2006 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Classic Charmes aromas of lemon, smoke, vanilla and hazelnut. Concentrated and silky, with lovely finesse to the flavors of dried fruits, lemon, nuts and stone. Fat, full, densely packed wine, with a firm acid edge giving it lovely balance. Finishes firm and long. This one featured the lowest crop level among Jobard's '06s, at just 35 hectoliters per hectare.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2009 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (aging in a new 1,050-liter Austrian foudre) Pale color. Aromas of lemon, minerals, vanilla and spices. Fresh, pure and sharply delineated, with strong minerality accentuating the wine's cut and power. Still a lot of gas here. Most impressive today on the pristine, very long back end, which boasts grand cru thrust. I like this barrel and don't find the wine especially oaky.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
1999 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Exotic fruits and lemon peel on the expressive nose. Fat, ripe, dense and glyceral; less precise and less classy than the Genevrieres but boasts extravagant richness. An impressive combination of volume and structure.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
2007 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 93.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Good pale color. Nose begins with subtle mint, anise and butter, then shows an emerging citric element with air. Chewy, broad and weightless in the mouth, carrying its volume gracefully; a reductive quality quickly dissipated but this very saline wine is hard to taste today. Extended aeration brought up lovely strong fruit flavors. A real essence of Meursault, but this will need patience. Still, with time in the glass, this was easier to taste than the Genevrieres.

Producer Commentary:
Among the new developments here: Jobard has 77 ares of Meursault Narvaux as of 2008, and beginning with 2011 the domain will be officially organic. On my June visit I focused on the 2007s from bottle as the 2008s were in mid-malo. Jobard described 2007 as a generous year, having yielded wines with "a lot of nervosite but also a lot of material." But he would not have said that during their elevage, he told me. "Early on, I compared 2007 to 2004, but now I think they're more like the 2005s in their length on the palate, even if they're not quite as hard on the attack," he explained. Jobard began harvesting on September 1, with what he described as "correct" sugar levels. He wondered out loud if he would have benefitted from picking five days later-or would have gotten flat wines. Based on my tasting in June, he made a good choice.
2000 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Lemon, tangerine and vanilla on the nose. Big, rich and layered in the mouth, with flavors of lemon and spice. Very fresh and firm thanks to sound acidity. Showing well today. From younger vines than the Genevrieres.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
1998 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright, pure pineapple and mineral aromas, lifted by mint. Brisk, fresh and clean; not fleshy but minerally and intensely flavored, with sound backbone. Evolving slowly but already shows enticing citrus flavors. Finishes with subtle persistence.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2003 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Fresher and more aromatic on the nose than the Luraules, with notes of orange, wet stone and gunflint. Then shapely and fresh, with an enticing orange flavor. Not hugely complex but nicely balanced, firm and persistent. These vines are always hard to ripen and were picked especially late in 2003, noted Jobard.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
1999 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Perfumed, tangy, high-pitched aromas of citrus skin and minerals. Richly fruity, dense and dry, with concentrated, ripe flavors of white fruits and stones. Excellent potential.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2011 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright, pale yellow. Fresh, fruit-driven aromas of pineapple, mango and fresh herbs. Smooth and tactile but not yet showy, with spicy oak and sound acidity giving the wine shape but keeping the fruit flavors under wraps. Best today on the elegant, sweet, persistent finish, which leaves behind a piquant suggestion of red grapefruit. Plenty of intensity and lift here but this one is not yet ready for prime time.

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations. I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished. Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance. The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s. Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite. The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage. The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized. Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees. But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
2003 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Creamy aromas of orange, vanilla and nuts. Fat, sweet and rich, with soft citrus and almond flavors. Fresher and more minerally than the foregoing samples, conveying an impression of more serious structure.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2015 Meursault Les Chevalières
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (this wine only recent finished its sugar fermentation, according to Jobard): A sexy touch of reduction to the aromas of honey and minerals. Firm-edged yellow fruits show a strong mineral character that is accentuated by unabsorbed CO2. In a stony style, and not currently showing fruity high notes. Hard to judge today but certainly very rich. Will it maintain its verve when the gas dissipates?

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard harvested his Chardonnay between September 3 and 9, reminding me that he picks earlier than his father did. The crop level was a bit higher in 2015 than it was the previous year, when he made half of a normal crop due to hail. “The 2015s are very ripe, rich and dense but they’re not pineappley,” Jobard told me. “They will be good to drink young but probably have the material to age. It’s a very ripe, fruity vintage, and the wines will take on a honeyed character as they age," he predicted, adding that his 2009s were heavier wines by comparison. The malolactic fermentations mostly finished in January but a few of the wines still had a bit of sugar left to ferment.
2005 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Good pale color. Mineral-driven aromas of wet stone, gunflint and lemon. Broad and dense but in a less fruity, more clenched style, with a mineral firmness throughout. Finishes classically dry, with subtle citrus and stone notes. From an east-facing plot; most of the Meursault hillside faces more southeast, noted Jobard, who added that this was the last vineyard he picked in 2006.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
2013 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (finished with its malo; tasted from a new foudre): Aromas of candied orange, spices and flowers. Chewy and classically dry, with a sappy quality and sound acid balance extending the finish. Very nicely balanced Meursault. Jobard says the 2012 is fruitier in comparison, while this is more saline.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year.Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well.And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s."He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way."The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming."Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak.Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
1999 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Apricot, peach, lime, white flowers and nut skin on the aromatic nose. Juicy, subtle and fine, with nicely integrated acidity giving the flavors very good delineation. Finishes with finesse and grip. This struck me as a bit stronger than the '00 version.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
2010 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright yellow with a green tinge. Lemon peel and white flowers on the lively nose. Rich, chewy and sweet; finer-grained than the Narvaux, with its concentration and thickness nicely leavened by a hint of crushed stone minerality and strong, harmonious acidity. Finishes broad, powerful and palate-staining. The crop level was a modest 35 hectoliters per hectare and the wine shows it.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2015 Meursault Les Chevalières
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 2019 - 2026

Tasting notes: (from a 1940 planting): Pale, bright, green-tinged yellow. Very ripe aromas of lime candy and ginger accented by a mineral note. Suave, firm and a bit youthfully tight, conveying very good definition and lift but less obvious sweetness than the Poruzot. Less rich and tactile than the Poruzot but this village wine boasts penetrating minerality and an energetic, slowly mounting finish. It has clearly benefited from its higher-altitude site in 2015.

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2016 Meursault Les Chevalières
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. High-pitched scents of lemon and crushed stone. Intense and highly perfumed, showing excellent precision to its flavors of citrus peel, spices and minerals. Some unabsorbed CO2 adds to the wine's juicy character. Not a thick wine but sharply chiseled, aromatic and long on the aftertaste; this really piques the salivary glands.

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2006 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. Lovely aromas of citrus peel, minerals and flowers, with a whiff of white pepper; I would never have guessed this was picked on September 28. Rich, sweet and glyceral, but with a dusty impression of minerality giving freshness and a chewy quality to the middle palate. Plenty of depth and personality here. Finishes with a saline element and good limey lift.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
2000 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Green-tinged color. Cool aromas of white peach and lime. Juicy, minerally and firm; on the lean side and seemingly less ripe than the Luraules. But also less forthcoming today and less evolved. From vines planted in 1940.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
2014 Meursault Les Chevalières
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright lemon-yellow color. Captivating lift to the aromas of citrus fruits and minerals; not at all a peachy style. Chewy, sappy and concentrated, with dominant flavors of crystallized citrus peel. This strong, vibrant wine may well offer early pleasure but should also evolve gracefully in bottle. Finishes sappy and long.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2009 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (this was the last chardonnay Jobard harvested in 2009): Pale color. Reticent aromas of lime, stone and lily. Densely packed, juicy and penetrating, with crushed stone and mineral flavors joined by a hint of pineapple. Quite dry and backward, displaying excellent acidity for the year. I'd hold this for a few years and drink the En Luraules and Narvaux first.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2009 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (these are Jobard's oldest vines, dating back to 1940) Bright, pale yellow. Pure lemon drop aroma. Juicy, tactile and light on its feet but youthfully tight, with firm underlying minerality giving the wine energy and contributing to the impression of inner-mouth perfume. Finishes long and aromatic, with lingering fruit. This vibrant Meursault will need time.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2013 Meursault Les Chevalières
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 2019 - 2025

Tasting notes: (from vines more than 60 years of age): Medium yellow. Fresh apricot, stone and menthol on the inviting nose. Rich and broad but energetic too, with harmonious acidity giving punch to the ripe fruit salad flavors. Tactile and saline but not austere. A superb village wine with good echoing grip.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2007 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Subtle aromas of stone fruits, white pepper and crushed rock. Not fleshy but more intense than the foregoing examples, with a juicy quality to the lemon, herb and powdered stone flavors. Finishes lemony and tight.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2008 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Healthy pale yellow. More lemon and less orange on the nose, with a strong impression of crushed stone. Then much less exotic in the mouth than the Narvaux, with a penetrating quality to the juicy citrus and floral flavors. Finishes pure, firm and nicely perfumed.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2011 Meursault Les Chevalières
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 2015 - 2015

Tasting notes: The 2011 Meursault Les Chevalières is impeccably layered from start to finish. Sweet honeyed notes wrap around a core of yellow-toned fruit as the wine opens up in the glass. The 2011 is all about silk and pure texture. The wine's medium-bodied, gracious personality is gorgeous to behold.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2001 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Nose dominated by apple. Lush, ripe and full, but with a flinty, mineral component giving the wine very good backbone. Almost '99-like in style: very rich but very dry.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2007 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (from a 1940 planting) Pale straw-yellow. Captivating high-pitched aromas of lemon, lime, pink grapefruit, lavender, wild herbs and mint. Juicy, citric and penetrating, with terrific energy and drive to the middle palate. Finishes with a resounding whiplash of citrus flavors. Very pure and strong.

Producer Commentary:
Among the new developments here: Jobard has 77 ares of Meursault Narvaux as of 2008, and beginning with 2011 the domain will be officially organic. On my June visit I focused on the 2007s from bottle as the 2008s were in mid-malo. Jobard described 2007 as a generous year, having yielded wines with "a lot of nervosite but also a lot of material." But he would not have said that during their elevage, he told me. "Early on, I compared 2007 to 2004, but now I think they're more like the 2005s in their length on the palate, even if they're not quite as hard on the attack," he explained. Jobard began harvesting on September 1, with what he described as "correct" sugar levels. He wondered out loud if he would have benefitted from picking five days later-or would have gotten flat wines. Based on my tasting in June, he made a good choice.
2006 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Subtly complex aromas of citrus fruits and hay; not particularly exotic considering the fact that Jobard picked late in 2006. Structured and minerally in the mouth, conveying a fairly dry impression today. This juicy wine, from the oldest vines of the domain (originally planted in 1940), needs a bit of patience.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2013 Meursault Le Poruzots Dessus 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 2020 - 2029

Tasting notes: Very pale yellow color. Ripe, very fresh aroma of crystallized apricot. Tactile, saline and intense, showing considerable power to its silky, concentrated peach and mineral flavors. This very well-balanced wine finishes chewy and long.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2014 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright pale yellow. Yellow fruits, wet stone and honey on the nose. Shows harmonious acidity but less minerality than the Chevalières, giving it a more open-knit texture in the early going. Can't match the Chevalières for intensity or inner-mouth perfume but this is lemony and smooth on the palate and firm-edged on the finish.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2006 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Good pale yellow. Musky, expressive, very ripe aromas of lemon drop, oatmeal and hazelnut. Glyceral, rich and sweet, with a slightly aggressive character due to the CO2 Compared to the Chevaliers, this is a tad dry on the end. I'd probably want to drink this on the early side.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
1999 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pear, apple, honey and flowers on the nose; a bit less minerally and pristine than the Chevalieres. Sweet and fat on entry, then rather closed in the middle palate, especially for a young Poruzots. Almost Chablis-like in style. A very young wine that currently showing more breadth than flavor interest and finesse, but has plenty of structure to reward a few years of bottle aging.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
2004 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Come-hither aromas of peach and soft citrus fruits. Less minerally and focused than the Chevaliers but with a fatter texture and a larger structure. But this big boy is still rather backward and not yet expressing itself. The richest 2004 in the cellar, at 13.65%, according to Jobard.

Producer Commentary:
1996 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Tangy aromas of grapefruit, orange peel and herbs. A step up in richness following the village wines: powerful on the attack, then vibrant and stony. Unevolved in the style of the vintage. Quite long, slightly phenolic back end.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
1997 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Smoke, honey, tangerine and apricot aromas. Fatter, sweeter, more fruit-driven than the Chevaliers; really stuffed with ripe citrus fruit and thus more typical of the vintage. A blend of 14- and 44-year-old vines.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
2000 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Honey, lime and spice on the expressive nose. Glyceral and sweet in the mouth, with honey and spice flavors. Seems more evolved than the Chevalieres but Jobard points out that there less SO2 here. Has just enough acidity to maintain its balance.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
2003 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Subdued nose hints at green melon and smoky lees. Sweet, supple and a bit warm, without the personality of Jobard's best 2003s. Soft citrus and nutty flavors are framed by decent acids, but the finish betrays some alcoholic bitterness.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
2000 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Complex, ripe aromas of lemon, tangerine, minerals, honey and stone. Thick but fresh, with very ripe pineapple and lemon flavors enlivened by harmonious, succulent acidity. Very nicely balanced and long. Just a hint of dryness on the end from the oak. A distinctly minerally style of Poruzots: Jobard parcel is very close to Genevrieres.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
1997 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very rich, slightly high-toned aroma of lemon oil and charry, smoky oak. Fat, soft and honeyed; very ripe-verging-on-sweet, and not at all minerally. This is 14.2% alcohol and impressive in its idiom.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
2003 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Sweet, inviting aromas of soft citrus fruits and almond. Sweet, rich and gentle, with good depth of flavor. A bit more dominated by its oak today (Jobard uses about 20% new oak for his wines) than the other 2003s and thus a tad dry on the end.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2019 Meursault Chevalières
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2027

Tasting notes: The 2019 Meursault Chevalières has a light, peppermint tinged bouquet that opens nicely with aeration. The palate is balanced with tropical notes of passion fruit, pineapple and nectarine, moderate acidity with a light tang of spice towards the finish. Pretty, but short term. 

Producer Commentary:
2019 Meursault Charmes 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2028

Tasting notes: The 2019 Meursault Charmes 1er Cru is lacking some complexity on the nose, ironically missing the "charm" of the Poruzots. The palate is rounded in texture with tropical fruit: pineapple, peach and star fruit, moderate levels of acidity with a straightforward but pleasant finish. 

Producer Commentary:
2010 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: Jobard's 2010 Meursault En Luraule is built on a serious core of intense fruit, but shows less in the way of aromatic nuance and minerality. Saline notes appear on the finish, but they remain in the background, with the open, radiant fruit taking center stage. The En Luraule is attractive Meursault that will drink well pretty much upon release 

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes the 2010s as having the richness of the 2009s and the elegance of the 2008s. I suppose that's as good a description as any. Jobard began bringing in his 2010s on September 21. Yields are down a whopping 40-50%, but in exchange Jobard has a superb set of wines that are rich yet not at all heavy. It is a vintage in which the personality of each of these sites comes through in spades. As I mentioned last year, Jobard is among the small but growing number of white Burgundy producers experimenting with foudres, which seems to work especially well with his wines. The Narvaux, Genevrières, Poruzots are partly aged in foudre, while the Charmes is done entirely in foudre.
2019 Meursault Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2029

Tasting notes: The 2019 Meursault Genevrières 1er Cru displays much more tension and terroir expression compared to the Charmes, walnut and hazelnut eventually emerging with time. The palate is very well balanced with orange cordial, apricot and light peachy notes. Very, very drinkable, although I would have liked more nerve and tension on the finish. 

Producer Commentary:
1998 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Spiced lemon, nut butter and a whiff of oatmeal on the nose. Sweeter and more precise than the above, with lovely intensity and a bright citric quality. Atypically for this cellar, this cuvee actually shows more acidity and structure than the '97. Finishes long, with good grip.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
2008 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Good pale yellow. Orange blossom and spices on the nose and palate. Offers a creaminess of texture but there's also good cut here. Half of this wine was aged in a new ten-hectoliter foudre Jobard buys his barriques and larger barrels from a tonnelerie in Austria. He believes that this wood helps him make wines with less torrefaction and vanilla character but more minerality and elegance.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
1997 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Complex, pure aromas of hazelnut, herbs and oatmeal; very Meursault. Very rich and ripe but light on its feet. Compared to the above, this is livelier and shows more personality. Very good length.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
2010 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright light-medium yellow. Crystallized lemon peel on the slightly oily nose. Glyceral and sweet in the mouth but with excellent acid cut giving shape to this thick wine. Apple and pear flavors linger impressively on the aftertaste. This is denser and drier than the Sous La Velle, which boasts alcohol close to 14% but had not yet finished its malo.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2007 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 85.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pure, slightly peppery aromas of citrus peel and fresh herbs. Leanish and dry on the palate, with a tart aspect to the white peach flavor.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2006 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Ripe but bright aromas of peach and citrus fruits; very Meursault. Chewy, sexy and plump, with a rather glyceral texture and an exotic suggestion of lichee. A very supple style, but does it have enough depth? Ultimately more structured than the Sous La Velle, and classically dry on the finish.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
2007 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Lime and crushed stone aromas along with a bit of biscuity reduction. Then juicy and sweet, with enticing flavors of lime and spices. This broad, sweet village wine offers excellent energy and finishes with very good grip. There are five different plantings that go into this cuvee: Jobard bought these vines when they were "very young," just before the 1994 harvest.

Producer Commentary:
Among the new developments here: Jobard has 77 ares of Meursault Narvaux as of 2008, and beginning with 2011 the domain will be officially organic. On my June visit I focused on the 2007s from bottle as the 2008s were in mid-malo. Jobard described 2007 as a generous year, having yielded wines with "a lot of nervosite but also a lot of material." But he would not have said that during their elevage, he told me. "Early on, I compared 2007 to 2004, but now I think they're more like the 2005s in their length on the palate, even if they're not quite as hard on the attack," he explained. Jobard began harvesting on September 1, with what he described as "correct" sugar levels. He wondered out loud if he would have benefitted from picking five days later-or would have gotten flat wines. Based on my tasting in June, he made a good choice.
2005 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, green-tinged color. More aromatic nose combines lime and powdered stone. Supple on the attack, then racier and more nuanced in the middle palate than the Sous La Velle, with expressive, sweet, classic Meursault fruit flavors of lime and orange. Finishes with good length and grip.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
2000 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Ripe nose hints at tangerine. Sweeter and fuller than the Sous la Velle, with more shape and structure. Fatter and longer on the back end.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
1996 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Reticent nose opens slowly to reveal fascinating notes of orange, vineyard peach, mango chutney and brown butter. Lovely juicy intensity; laidback but quite rich. Strong acidity gives shape to the spicy fruit. Finishes dry and very firm. The aromatics here reminded me of a wine from Jean-Marc Boillot.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
2012 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (tasted from a 1,000-liter foudre; sulfited a month before my visit): Bright lemon-yellow. Musky yellow peach complemented by a deeper nutty element. Rich and spicy on the attack, showing lemon, grapefruit and stone flavors. Then savory and saline on the firmly structured back end, which displays lively stone and grapefruit nuances. A very good showing. (The very minerally Narvaux, from vines Jobard bought in 2008, was barely halfway through its malo, as was the Chevalieres.)

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations.I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished.Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance.The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s.Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite.The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage.The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized.Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees.But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
1999 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 87.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Tangy aromas of orange peel and lime blossom. Still rather hard from recent sulfuring and holding more gas today. Difficult to assess with confidence but seems less fleshy than the Sous La Velle. I suspect this is better than it's showing today.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2003 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Apricot, nuts and butter on the nose, with a whiff of mint. Sweet and full, with good volume and nicely integrated acidity. A bit dry with alcohol on the end, but holds its shape.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
2006 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Brighter, muskier aromas of orange oil, hazelnut and oatmeal; very Meursault! Then sweet, round and fresh, with more intensity and stuffing than the Sous La Velle. Finishes with firmer fruit and more length.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2002 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Orange, hazelnut and minerals on the nose. Sweeter, silkier and fleshier than the Sous La Velle, with enticing flavors of oatmeal and toasted grain. And yet this also offers lovely life in the mouth. Finishes firm, fruity and persistent.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2011 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: High-pitched aroma of white peach. Richer and stronger than the Sous La Velle, with a juicy quality and plenty of spice character. A bit more aggressive today but sweeter and more intense on the stylish finish, which offers a whiplash of flavor.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March.This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages:"the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008."Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range.Production was down 40% from a normal year.Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes.The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard.He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee.Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2004 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Subdued stony nose is less obviously ripe than that of the Sous La Velle. Fat in the middle but with less forthcoming flavors of orange, lemon and mint. Less sweet and more dominated today by its structure, with more obvious alcohol. But there may be more material here.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
1998 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Attractive, ripe aromas of mandarin orange and roasted grain. Finer and more delineated than the Sous La Velle, with ripe acids giving it good balance. Has a young-viney intensity yet comes across as rather suave.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2009 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, bright yellow. Pure lemony nose comes across as more classic than that of the Sous La Velle. More minerally and more elegantly styled, offering juicy citrus flavors and lovely acid balance. Plenty of richness here too, but distinctly more laid-back than the Sous La Velle.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2011 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright yellow. Peach syrup, nutty oak, spices and flowers on the very ripe, open-knit nose. Supple and plush, with an almost glyceral texture but good framing acidity to the grapefruit and pineapple flavors. I like the balance of sweetness and acidity here. Finishes supple and persistent.

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations.I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished.Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance.The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s.Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite.The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage.The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized.Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees.But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
2009 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Good pale straw-yellow color. Brighter, expressive aromas of citrus fruit, spices and hazelnut. Offers more richness and stuffing than the comparatively lean Sous La Valle, with the soft citrus flavors carrying through in the mouth. Finishes quite dry and firm.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me that 2010 is the greatest vintage of recent years for him, and my early tasting of these wines suggests that he's right. Crop levels were very low, and the 2010s are sappy, concentrated, serious wines for aging. He told me that while the 2008s may be more minerally, they have less gras than the 2010s. Jobard presses very slowly, extracting little in the way of gross lees, and he believes this explains the purity of his wines. Incidentally, his classically dry 2009s have likewise turned out very well. They're all in the 13.2% to 13.7% range in alcohol but have enough balancing acidity to ensure freshness and definition. "It's a rich year in which my long elevage brought more elegance to the wines," said Jobard. "I've bottled after 18 months since 1999, and I've never regretted it." (Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA
2012 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, green-tinged straw-yellow. High-pitched aromas of lime, lemon and lavender. Densely packed and youthfully taut, with strong acidity framing the flavors of peach, flowers, crushed stone and lavender. Finishes saline, lemon-limey and long, but with a youthful hard edge calling for patience. Jobard told me that this wine was more aromatic a month before my visit noting that some of the 2012s were shutting down in bottle "but have the concentration to age."

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year.Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well.And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s."He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way."The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming."Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak.Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
1999 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Reticent nose dominated by licorice and oak. Rather inexpressive on the palate, hinting at lime and hay. Seems well balanced but finishes with a slight dryness. Jobard says this bottling is usually rounder and more concentrated.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.
2014 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, bright yellow. Peach, menthol and flowers on the nose. A step up in intensity and firmness from the Sous La Velle, with flavors of nectarine and brown spices framed by firm underlying minerality. No shortage of depth or texture here, and seemingly more minerally than the 2013.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2015 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of apple, mirabelle and marzipan convey a superripe quality. Fat and sweet on the palate but given shape by harmonious acidity. This silky, concentrated wine shows no rough edges today. A full, thick fruit bomb with a marzipan ripeness to its yellow fruit and spice flavors; not a particularly mineral style but not heavy either. Finishes with good grip and surprising length. 

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard harvested his Chardonnay between September 3 and 9, reminding me that he picks earlier than his father did. The crop level was a bit higher in 2015 than it was the previous year, when he made half of a normal crop due to hail. “The 2015s are very ripe, rich and dense but they’re not pineappley,” Jobard told me. “They will be good to drink young but probably have the material to age. It’s a very ripe, fruity vintage, and the wines will take on a honeyed character as they age," he predicted, adding that his 2009s were heavier wines by comparison. The malolactic fermentations mostly finished in January but a few of the wines still had a bit of sugar left to ferment.
2014 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2018 - 2025

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. Aromas of yellow stone fruits, pineapple and spices. Supple, sweet peach and spice flavors are nicely firmed by a touch of minerality. A bit more phenolic on the back end than the Sous La Velle. This wine is from vines higher on the hillside--in fact, at a similar altitude as the premier crus--on soil featuring more calcaire than the Sous La Velle.

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard was an early harvester in 2014, picking between September 10 and 17. He told me that there was a bit of botrytis at the end but that he had brought in all of his Meursault grapes by then. He bottled his ‘14s in February, as is his usual practice, and although he chaptalized a bit, he told me that none of his 2014s are higher than 13% alcohol. Jobard stressed that he prefers his 2014s to his 2015s today.
2011 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2014 - 2014

Tasting notes: The 2011 Meursault En Luraule stands out for its pure tension and energy. Bright lemon oil, crushed rocks and floral notes are supported by precise beams of minerality in a vivid, beautifully articulated Meursault. Readers who like brilliant, tense Meursaults will love the En Luraule.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2009 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2009 Meursault En Luraule, from a parcel that touches Gouttes d'Or, possesses gorgeous textural richness and depth. This is another superbly elegant, refined wine graced with exceptional class and harmony. Salt, crushed rocks and lemon frame the utterly exquisite, deep finish. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2013 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 2018 - 2024

Tasting notes: (these 20-year-old vines are adjacent to Gouttes d'Or): Higher-toned and more exotic on the nose than the Sous La Velle, but offering good lift to its white peach aroma. Then dense, bright and precise on the palate, with pure citrus and stone flavors showing good verve but finishing a bit edgy.

Producer Commentary:
I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.
2018 Bourgogne Côte D’or Blanc Vieilles Vignes
Color: White

Score: 86.0

Drinking window: 2020 - 2024

Tasting notes: The 2018 Bourgogne Côte d’Or Blanc Vieilles Vignes has a light orange blossom scented bouquet that shows a little more character than the Bourgogne Blanc. The palate is fresh and lightly spiced on the entry, slightly waxy in texture with a zest, stem ginger tinged finish. Enjoy this over the next couple of years. 

Producer Commentary:
2002 Chassagne Montrachet Les Chaumees
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (a negociant offering, from purchased must; these vines are more than 40 years of age, according to Jobard) Very subtle, pure aromas of peach blossom and white plum, with a stronger floral overlay than Jobard's Meursaults. Then sweet, fat and chewy, with a rather open-knit texture and less definition than the last couple of Meursault samples. The peach blossom quality carries through in the mouth. Offers attractive sweetness but has not quite integrated its acids yet.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2011 Meursault 1er Cru Poruzots Dessus
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 2015 - 2015

Tasting notes: A deep, earthy wine, the 2011 Meursault 1er Cru Poruzots-Dessus hits the palate with tons of muscle and power. The style is bold and direct. There isn't a whole lot of complexity here, but there is plenty of pure stuffing. It will be interesting to see where the 2011 goes over the coming year. Today structural elements dominate over fruit.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2010 Meursault 1er Cru Poruzots Dessus
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 2015 - 2015

Tasting notes: The 2010 Meursault Poruzots-Dessus comes across as quite cool and inward. Today, it is the wine's minerality that dominates the balance. From time to time the fruit begins to emerge, but ultimately, the 2010 remains pretty closed. A finish laced with substantial energy and tension makes me hopeful for the future, but the 2010 clearly needs time to settle down as it was bottled in March 2012. 

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes the 2010s as having the richness of the 2009s and the elegance of the 2008s. I suppose that's as good a description as any. Jobard began bringing in his 2010s on September 21. Yields are down a whopping 40-50%, but in exchange Jobard has a superb set of wines that are rich yet not at all heavy. It is a vintage in which the personality of each of these sites comes through in spades. As I mentioned last year, Jobard is among the small but growing number of white Burgundy producers experimenting with foudres, which seems to work especially well with his wines. The Narvaux, Genevrières, Poruzots are partly aged in foudre, while the Charmes is done entirely in foudre.
2009 Meursault 1er Cru Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2009 Meursault Genevrières comes across as cool, reserved and intensely mineral. Lime, grapefruit and jasmine are just some of the notes that flow from this breathtaking, finely sculpted Meursault. This needs time in the glass to open up, but when it does readers will be treated to a sublime wine. The flavors are superbly layered, while the chiseled finish is achingly beautiful. The wine fleshed out beautifully on the close. This is a dazzling wine from Remi Jobard. It is the most intensely mineral of Jobard's 2009s. I also tasted a bottle of the 2001, which was utterly divine. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2009 Meursault 1er Cru Poruzots Au Dessus
Color: White

Score: 94.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2009 Meursualt Poruzots Au Dessus is a beautifully pointed, articulated wine graced with endless finesse and sophistication. It shows wonderful nuance and transparency in its bright, crystalline fruit. Initially rather reserved, the wine turns richer and more exuberant on the mid-palate and finish. Clean, saline notes add the final layers of complexity. This is all about subtlety and nuance. I wish I had had more time to follow it, as the wine continued to improve as it opened up in the glass. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2009 Meursault 1er Cru Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2009 Meursault Les Charmes is the richest of these 2009s from Jobard. It boasts gorgeous depth in its radiant, expressive fruit. This is a decidedly flashy, extroverted wine endowed with tons of class and elegance. I have a slight preference for some of the more focused wines here in 2009, but there is no denying the Charmes. It is fabulous. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2011 Meursault 1er Cru Charmes
Color: White

Score: 94.0

Drinking window: 2015 - 2015

Tasting notes: Jobard's 2011 Meursault 1er Cru Charmes is rich, ample and broad on the palate. Creamy and wonderfully expressive, the 2011 bursts from the glass with layer after layer of flavor. All the seductive elements of Charmes come together beautifully in a wine that is pure class. Hints of pear and dried flowers leave a lasting impression.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2010 Meursault 1er Cru Charmes
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 2014 - 2014

Tasting notes: Jobard's 2010 Meursault Charmes is all about plushness, texture and volume. It possesses striking purity in its fruit, but remains pretty much one dimensional, although that dimension is incredibly beautiful. Layers of yellow stone fruit with tropical overtones flesh out on the rich, large-scaled finish. Some of the intensity trails off just a touch on the finish, but not enough to materially detract from the wine's stunning balance. The 2010 was aged exclusively in foudre. 

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes the 2010s as having the richness of the 2009s and the elegance of the 2008s. I suppose that's as good a description as any. Jobard began bringing in his 2010s on September 21. Yields are down a whopping 40-50%, but in exchange Jobard has a superb set of wines that are rich yet not at all heavy. It is a vintage in which the personality of each of these sites comes through in spades. As I mentioned last year, Jobard is among the small but growing number of white Burgundy producers experimenting with foudres, which seems to work especially well with his wines. The Narvaux, Genevrières, Poruzots are partly aged in foudre, while the Charmes is done entirely in foudre.
2011 Meursault 1er Cru Genevrières
Color: White

Score: 94.0

Drinking window: 2015 - 2015

Tasting notes: In 2011 the Meursault 1er Cru Genevrières is ethereal, gracious and impeccably refined. Here, too, the aromas and flavors haven't really developed, instead what impresses most is the wine's pure minerality and intensity. Lemon, crushed rocks, white flowers and savory herbs all inform the pointed, chiseled finish. The 2011 needs at least a few years in the cellar. If opened today the 2011 needs a lot of air.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2010 Meursault 1er Cru Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 94.0

Drinking window: 2015 - 2015

Tasting notes: The 2010 Meursault Genevrières is another fabulous wine from Jobard. Today, the battle is between the intensity of the fruit and the wine's minerality, both of which play off each other. Pears, citrus, crushed rocks and white peaches flesh out over time, but today, the 2010 is mostly about texture and vibrancy, two qualities it has in spades. This is a delicate, feminine, understated style for Genevrières. But it works, and then some. This is a great showing from Remi Jobard. 

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes the 2010s as having the richness of the 2009s and the elegance of the 2008s. I suppose that's as good a description as any. Jobard began bringing in his 2010s on September 21. Yields are down a whopping 40-50%, but in exchange Jobard has a superb set of wines that are rich yet not at all heavy. It is a vintage in which the personality of each of these sites comes through in spades. As I mentioned last year, Jobard is among the small but growing number of white Burgundy producers experimenting with foudres, which seems to work especially well with his wines. The Narvaux, Genevrières, Poruzots are partly aged in foudre, while the Charmes is done entirely in foudre.
2003 Chassagne Montrachet La Maltroie
Color: White

Score: 87.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (from purchased must) Reduced aromas of yellow fruits, flowers and butter. Sweet, supple and rich, with lovely stone fruit and pear flavors enlivened by harmonious acidity. Then a bit tart and hard-edged on the back, without the finishing sweetness of the Chevalieres.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2019 Bourgogne Blanc
Color: White

Score: 85.0

Drinking window: 2021 - 2023

Tasting notes: The 2019 Bourgogne Blanc has a light pithy nose. The palate is balanced but very simple, though there is nice weight on the pear and peach-tinged finish. 

Producer Commentary:
2011 Bourgogne Blanc
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2011 Bourgogne wraps around the palate with succulent yellow stone fruits. Peach and apricot notes flesh out in a gorgeous, expressive Bourgogne loaded with class. The Bourgogne is made from parcels, all on the Meursault border.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2009 Bourgogne
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2009 Bourgogne floats across the palate with subtle layers of sweet, perfumed fruit. It is an extraordinarily refined, polished wine at this level. A clean, exquisite finish rounds out this gorgeous wine. The Bourgogne is a blend of six parcels, all on the periphery of Meursault. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2011 Bourgogne Aligote
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: Jobard's 2011 Bourgogne Aligote impresses for its depth and sheer substance. This is a rare Aligote with no hard edges and plenty of soft, caressing fruit. High-toned floral and white stone fruit notes add lift on the open, generous finish. These 40+ year old vines in Meursault yield an Aligote of rare distinction. 

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2009 Bourgogne Aligote
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2009 Bourgogne Aligote is a crisp, well-delineated wine with lovely precision and balance at its level. It is an excellent choice for near-term drinking. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2018 Bourgogne Blanc
Color: White

Score: 86.0

Drinking window: 2020 - 2024

Tasting notes: The 2018 Bourgogne Blanc has a rather non-descript nose, clean and fresh, yet lacking much in the way of personality. The palate is fresh on the entry with melon and grapefruit notes, fine acidity with a simple but pleasing peachy finish. Drink over the next couple of years. 

Producer Commentary:
1998 Meursault
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Ripe aromas of candied lemon zest, honey and smoky oak. Silky and fat in the mouth; full, spicy and long. The honey and smoky oak notes repeat on the palate.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
1999 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: White peach and honey aromas. Pure, firm and rather fine for Poruzots, with bright acidity giving the flavors good grip. Still a bit hard-edged on the finish from recent sulfuring.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2004 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Soft citrus and spices on the nose. Supple and ripe but less nuanced than the Chevaliers, with less thrust. In fact, this rather closed, dry wine is hiding more than it's showing today. From two parcels of vines, one about 20 and the other about 60 years of age.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
2002 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Honeyed nose, with citrus hints in the background. Quite closed in the mouth despite boasting a rather fat texture. Citrus fruit and toasted meal flavors seem a bit youthfully muffled today. Jobard says this is more sharply delineated than it's showing today.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2005 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, green-tinged color. Reticent but pure aromas of citrus peel and mint. Round, supple and fat but not yet expressive in the middle. Best today on the dry but perfumed finish, which throws off notes of lime blossom and spring flowers, as well as a suggestion of alcohol.

Producer Commentary:
Just when I thought I had a fix on Meursault 2006, I visited Remi Jobard on the last day of my trip. Jobard did not start harvesting until September 25, and yet his wines for the most part do not lack for freshness or spine. "There may have been 5% botrytized grapes in chardonnay," said Jobard, "but I didn't go out of my way to eliminate this fruit." Nor were there any special problems with insufficient acidity, he went on, and the wines are more elegant and aromatic than the '05s, which are richer. "The '06s are easier to taste now," he told me, "while the '05s have so much material that you can't really drink them now. But the very dry '04s are for the true Burgundy lover." In fact, Jobard's '06s were unusually aromatic for a new vintage in this cellar, as the malos finished quickly and the wines had been sulfited by late winter.
2001 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very ripe apple on the nose. Chewy, dense and sharply delineated, with very intense apple, quinine, mineral and wet stone flavors. Dusty and tactile like a top Chablis. Very concentrated wine, finishing brisk, chewy and very long.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
1998 Meursault Le Poruzots
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: High-pitched aromas of mandarin orange, lemon and nuts. Ripe and approachable; sweet, rather silky flavors of pineapple, lemon and honey. Not especially complex today but showing well, and quite persistent on the aftertaste.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2010 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very pale, bright yellow. Tangy white peach, tangerine and flowers on the subtle nose. At once supple and juicy, with a minty, metallic perfume to the tangy citrus peel flavors. A bit tight and restrained today, this will need two or three years to harmonize its 13.85% alcohol and 4.45 g/l acidity.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March.This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages:"the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008."Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range.Production was down 40% from a normal year.Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes.The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard.He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee.Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2018 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 2021 - 2027

Tasting notes: The 2018 Meursault Les Narvaux has a straightforward bouquet that does not quite translate the nobility of this, one of the best Village Crus in Meursault. The palate is well balanced but simple, underpinned by a fine bead of acidity but missing some personality and detail, especially on the finish. 

Producer Commentary:
2013 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (tasted from a foudre; the final blend will have slightly less than 20% new oak; less than halfway through its malolactic fermentation): Bright medium yellow. Sexy aromas of crystallized peach, orange and spices. A step up in intensity from the Luraules, which was stunted by its unconverted malic acidity and impossible to assess, showing sweet soft citrus flavors enlivened by strong minerality. Finishes firm and persistent. These vines are now 55 years of age.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year. Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well. And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s." He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way. "The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming." Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak. Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
2010 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (13.9% alcohol with 4.5 acidity): Captivating nose combines orange juice, white peach, quinine and crushed rock, all lifted by pepperminty high tones. Sweet but not overly so, with harmonious acidity giving energy and shape to the rich stone fruit and citrus flavors. Generous, tactile and long on the back end. Suppler and fatter than the en Luraules but still brisk and racy.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March. This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages: "the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008." Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range. Production was down 40% from a normal year. Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes. The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard. He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee. Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2011 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright yellow. Aromas of white peach, lemon and lime lifted by flowers and spices. More obviously oaky on the palate, with the spice and hazelnut flavors currently overshadowing stone and citrus fruits. Finishes fresh and tight, in need of a couple years of patience.

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations. I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished. Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance. The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s. Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite. The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage. The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized. Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees. But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
2009 Meursault Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2009 Meursault Narvaux is an attractive, well-delineated wine laced with pears and white peaches. The finish is vibrant and articulate, with pretty floral notes that add lift on the close. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2014 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2018 - 2025

Tasting notes: Pale color. Aromas of crystallized lemon peel and peach show a candied aspect in a positive, fresh way. Juicy, elegant and gripping, showing the thickness of the vintage's better examples but also solid balancing acidity. Its flavors of citrus fruits and acacia flower are enlivened by underlying minerality. Finishes generous, dry and long. Incidentally, Jobard told me that his 2014s finished drier than his 2015s.

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard was an early harvester in 2014, picking between September 10 and 17. He told me that there was a bit of botrytis at the end but that he had brought in all of his Meursault grapes by then. He bottled his ‘14s in February, as is his usual practice, and although he chaptalized a bit, he told me that none of his 2014s are higher than 13% alcohol. Jobard stressed that he prefers his 2014s to his 2015s today.
2011 Meursault Les Narvaux
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: A bit more exotic on the nose than the en Luraules, showing orange blossom and spices. Dense, tactile and bright; ripe flavors of soft citrus, yellow peach, spices and hazelnut are quintessential Meursault. Higher-toned and more expressive than Sous La Velle or en Luraules. Finishes broad and lively, with notes of citrus zest and white pepper. Not as rich as the 2010 but there's plenty of material here.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March. This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages: "the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008." Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range. Production was down 40% from a normal year. Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes. The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard. He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee. Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2009 Meursault Narvaux (Foudre)
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2009 Meursault Narvaux (foudre) was aged in a single 950-liter barrel and is a bit of an experiment. In 2009 the larger barrel helped maintain freshness. This is a seamless, dazzling wine laced with expressive fruit. The finish is soft, caressing and marvelously complete. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2016 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. Musky aromas of lemon, lime and hazelnut. At once densely packed and light on its feet, conveying lovely perfume, definition and inner-mouth lift to its citrus and mineral flavors. Finishes with excellent juicy citric lift and grip.

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
1997 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: More complex, exotic aromas of orange peel, tangerine, smoke, hazelnut and nut butter; suggestions of surmaturite Superripe, sweet and broad, yet manages to maintain its shape. Fat and rich, but not yet complex in the mouth. Still, this has sound acidity and very good length.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
2000 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of tangerine and smoke. Aromatically pure but with riper, more exotic fruit than the Sous La Velle. Then juicy and fresh on the back, with good cut.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2004 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Riper aromas of soft citrus fruits and hazelnut. Sweet, supple and rich, but with firm acid spine. Less minerally than the Sous La Velle but more supple and satisfying. Finishes with good breadth and ripeness.

Producer Commentary:
2018 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 2021 - 2028

Tasting notes: The 2018 Meursault En Luraule has a backward and recalcitrant bouquet that is perhaps more like a Puligny than a Meursault. The palate is well balanced with a touch of liquorice (like the Sous la Velle). Good weight in the mouth, although the mintiness comes across a little strong on the finish for my liking. 

Producer Commentary:
2015 Meursault en Luraule
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2018 - 2023

Tasting notes: Pale, bright, green-tinged yellow. Lime blossom and a hint of hazelnut on the nose. Nicely concentrated and not at all overly sweet, displaying lovely high-pitched citrus and white peach perfume in the mouth. A 2015 Meursault with an attractive light touch and excellent finishing lift.

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2001 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Deeply pitched aromas of nuts, spiced apple and lemon. Good volume on the attack, then less plush and weighty in the middle palate, with good intensity. A bit dried by the gas today, and quite firm on the finish.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2010 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow with green highlights. Perfumed aromas of lime blossom, spearmint and spices. Dense, rich and spicy if a bit youthfully aggressive; boasts good sweetness but comes across as tight today. Penetrating village wine with a very dry, youthfully bitter finish. Give this four or five years.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March. This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages: "the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008." Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range. Production was down 40% from a normal year. Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes. The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard. He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee. Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2003 Meursault en Luraules
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very ripe aromas of soft citrus fruits and nutty, vanillin oak. Ripe and rich, showing more sweetness today than the Sous La Velle. The vanillin quality carries through on the palate. Finishes rich and fairly long, with adequate freshness.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
2010 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very pale color. Aromas of green apple, lemon ice and white flowers, plus a whiff of fresh apricot. Silky, dense and harmonious but still quite tight, showing almost riesling-like cut to its strong fruit and floral flavors. The firm-edged finish shows excellent stony reserve. This boasts much more spine today than it did from barrel in the spring of 2011.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March. This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages: "the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008." Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range. Production was down 40% from a normal year. Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes. The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard. He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee. Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2012 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (tasted from foudre; sulfited a month ago): Complex aromas of citrus fruits and musky stone, with hints of honey and hazelnut. Rich, sweet and almost exotic, but with surprising acidity framing the mango and hazelnut flavors. Piquant notes of grapefruit and underripe pineapple give cut to the persistent finish. This should offer relatively early pleasure. (Jobard's Genevrieres was barely starting its malolactic fermentation at the beginning of June. And there's no Charmes in 2012, as Jobard pulled up his vines and will replant them next year.)

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations.I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished.Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance.The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s.Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite.The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage.The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized.Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees.But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
2016 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale, bright lemon-yellow. Pure but youthfully reticent nose hints at stone fruits. Tactile and bright in the mouth, with an alluring touch of sweetness to its nectarine, lime and spice flavors. Lovely juicy Meursault with length and lift.

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2015 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2018 - 2025

Tasting notes: (this fruit was picked with grape sugars at 14.2%): Pale, green-tinged yellow. Aromas of candied lime blossom, lemon and flowers. Concentrated, ripe and sweet, with its almost glyceral mouth feel nicely leavened by limey lift. Jobard noted that his 2015s finished with about 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar, which he said was higher than usual, and that the added sweetness gives the wines a creamy, unctuous character. This one is a bit youthfully aggressive but impressively tactile, finishing with a light phenolic edge and some emerging minerality. Am I underrating this?

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2015 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (as with the Chevalières and the Genevrières, I tasted this wine from a pièce because Jobard's foudres were still finishing their sugars): Apple, clove and a hint of oak on the nose and palate. Boasts lovely inner-mouth lift and grip; the yield here was actually slightly higher than that of the 2014 (40 hectoliters per hectare, vs. 30 or 35) but this has a more concentrated mouthfeel. A juicy, balanced outperformer.

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard harvested his Chardonnay between September 3 and 9, reminding me that he picks earlier than his father did. The crop level was a bit higher in 2015 than it was the previous year, when he made half of a normal crop due to hail. “The 2015s are very ripe, rich and dense but they’re not pineappley,” Jobard told me. “They will be good to drink young but probably have the material to age. It’s a very ripe, fruity vintage, and the wines will take on a honeyed character as they age," he predicted, adding that his 2009s were heavier wines by comparison. The malolactic fermentations mostly finished in January but a few of the wines still had a bit of sugar left to ferment.
2014 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2019 - 2027

Tasting notes: Bright lemon-yellow color. Lemon, white flowers and a whiff of honey on the reticent nose. Quite dry, even a bit unyielding, displaying a thickness of texture but with its fruit in the deep background. Less minerally than the Chevalières but this wine nonetheless will require cellaring to express itself.

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard was an early harvester in 2014, picking between September 10 and 17. He told me that there was a bit of botrytis at the end but that he had brought in all of his Meursault grapes by then. He bottled his ‘14s in February, as is his usual practice, and although he chaptalized a bit, he told me that none of his 2014s are higher than 13% alcohol. Jobard stressed that he prefers his 2014s to his 2015s today.
2007 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Subdued but deeper nose hints at lemon. Offers moderate flesh but good mouth coverage, with pure lemon and stone flavors complicated by pepper and fresh herbs. Finishes quite firm, with good stony, citric persistence. This is built to age.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2018 Meursault Poruzot Dessus 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2032

Tasting notes: The 2018 Meursault Poruzot-Dessus 1er Cru has an expressive, walnut and hazelnut scented bouquet that shows much more ambition than Jobard’s Village Crus. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, touches of quince and liquorice, good weight on the finish with impressive persistence. Excellent, although I find the price here rather "punchy". 

Producer Commentary:
2008 Meursault Le Poruzot Dessus
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. Open-knit but not exotic on the nose, offering aromas of citrus fruits and spices. Intense, pure and energetic, with lovely clarity to the flavors of orange, lemon and spices. Tricky weather around the flowering kept the crop level here to around 40 hectoliters per hectare.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2014 Meursault Les Chevalières
Color: White

Score: 91.5

Drinking window: 2019 - 2028

Tasting notes: Pale, bright lemon-yellow color. Pure, high-pitched scents of citrus zest, flowers and minerals. Juicy and firmly built, with urgent lemon and lime flavors complemented by harmonious minerality. This very precise, vibrant, youthfully tight Meursault finishes with terrific length, lift and grip. At this point in our tasting, Jobard compared the 2014s to the 2012s, noting that the '14s are more minerally while the '12s are fruitier.

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard was an early harvester in 2014, picking between September 10 and 17. He told me that there was a bit of botrytis at the end but that he had brought in all of his Meursault grapes by then. He bottled his ‘14s in February, as is his usual practice, and although he chaptalized a bit, he told me that none of his 2014s are higher than 13% alcohol. Jobard stressed that he prefers his 2014s to his 2015s today.
2010 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (from vines planted in 1940): Bright, pale straw-yellow. Subdued but pure aromas of orange dusty and powdered stone. Shows sweet citrus and floral notes in the middle, and comes across as slightly warm after the Narvaux. Tightens up considerably on the stony finish, which displays a metallic edge and strong calcaire qualities.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March. This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages: "the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008." Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range. Production was down 40% from a normal year. Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes. The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard. He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee. Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2004 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Somewhat reduced aromas of grapefruit, lemon, stones and charry oak. Concentrated and sweet, with brisk flavors of lemon, orange and stone, with the firm minerality of the vineyard and an impression of healthy acidity. Finishes fresh, juicy and persistent, if a bit youthfully tight. These 1940 vines did not produce the full yield in 2004.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
1998 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Quite minerally on the nose. Dense and minerally in the mouth, but neither as rich nor as firm as the '97. Reasonably bright citrus flavors. Finishes with sneaky length.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
2000 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Reticent but lively nose. Firm and minerally on the palate, with less fruit showing. But this is concentrated and bright. Less round than the Luraules or Sous La Velle and in need of two or three years of additional bottle aging. This east-facing, very old plot of vines is routinely Jobard last chardonnay to be harvested. "We always wait for 13% natural sugar and we always get there," he noted. "These vines are typically picked five days later than Sous La Velle but with more acidity."

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2010 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 2014 - 2014

Tasting notes: One of the most complete, beautiful wines in this lineup, the 2010 Meursault Les Chevalières possesses the rich fruit that is typical of the Jobard whites in 2010, yet is also has considerable minerality. There is a level of nuance and sheer delineation in the Chevalières that is simply striking. Bright floral notes leave a lasting impression on the impeccably balanced, long finish. This is Jobard's oldest parcel. The vines were planted in 1940. 

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard describes the 2010s as having the richness of the 2009s and the elegance of the 2008s. I suppose that's as good a description as any. Jobard began bringing in his 2010s on September 21. Yields are down a whopping 40-50%, but in exchange Jobard has a superb set of wines that are rich yet not at all heavy. It is a vintage in which the personality of each of these sites comes through in spades. As I mentioned last year, Jobard is among the small but growing number of white Burgundy producers experimenting with foudres, which seems to work especially well with his wines. The Narvaux, Genevrières, Poruzots are partly aged in foudre, while the Charmes is done entirely in foudre.
1997 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Brighter, more pristine lemon and mineral aromas; hints of smoke and tangerine. Fresher and more structured than the above, but more closed today and dominated by its steely spine. Not at all flatteur, but minerally, citric and firm on the back end. Jobard refers to this cuvee as his little Genevrieres.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
2011 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Bright, light lemon-yellow. Riper stone fruits, pear and pineapple on the nose and palate, enlivened by crushed stone. Rich, tactile wine with sweetness leavened by well-integrated acidity; spreads out nicely in the mouth. Not especially fat or dense but aromatic on the back end.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March. This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages: "the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008." Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range. Production was down 40% from a normal year. Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes. The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard. He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee. Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2002 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Broad, complex nose of soft citrus fruits and nuts. Rich on entry, then a bit more backward in the middle palate than the foregoing samples, with flavors of lime, orange and minerals. Finishes fresh, juicy and firm, with a dusty impression of extract. The overall impression is more dry and classic.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard started harvesting on September 2, "after most of my neighbors had finished, in order to get phenolic maturity. We had 20 millimeters of rain on August 27," he added, "and the vines absorbed the water and started working again, without losing acidity. "With yields in the very low 25 to 30 hectoliters-per-hectare range, Jobard did not chaptalize and he acidified lightly for the fermentations. Jobard does a long, slow pressing of the grapes but then almost no debourbage. But although he normally keeps all of the fine lees, he avoids batonnage because he likes to retain as much gas as possible to keep the wines fresh. Incidentally, Jobard has some Corton-Charlemagne in 2003, but two of the three barrels were still fermenting their sugars when I stopped by to taste.
1996 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Expressive, leesy aromas of orange peel, butter and spice. Lovely inner-mouth mineral and citric flavors. Lively, bright and long; very Meursault. Finishes with a hint of caramel.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
1997 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Grilled nuts, lemon, lime and a stony pungency on the nose. The richest to this point, though still holding some residual sweetness. Combines the acidity of the Luraule with the fat of the Sous la Velle. Long, ripe and harmonious on the finish. Jobard compares this to his Genevrieres, and the Luraule to his Poruzots.

Producer Commentary:
"1997 is agreeable, while 1996 is hard," says Jobard; "they are total opposites." Jobard, who has vinified by himself since 1992 (father Charles is retired), says the breakthrough at this domaine really occurred in '95, when he switched to longer, gentler pressing. (And even finer wines lie ahead, as Jobard has recently bought a new press, which he will inaugurate for the '98 harvest.) At about the same time, he began pruning shorter to get lower yields. Jobard harvested on the late side in 1996, and got thoroughly ripe fruit with potential alcohol as high as 14%. (The '97 fruit brought sugars even a bit higher, he claims.) In '96, says Jobard, one sees the differences between the crus and between the lieux dit in '95 and '94, he adds, there more of a heaviness to the wines, a more pronounced vintage character. All the '96s were bottled before the '97 harvest, as Jobard does not have the space in his cellar to keep two vintages in barrel at the same time.
2009 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: The 2009 Meursault Les Chevalières blossoms on the palate with layers of beautifully articulated fruit. White flowers and crushed rocks appear later, adding considerable brightness and focus. All of the elements build gracefully to a finish marked by considerable nuance and energy. The finish shows plenty of nuance and energy. These vines, planted in 1940, are Jobard's oldest. This is simply gorgeous juice. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2012 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 90.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Palish yellow. Pear, white peach and nutmeg on the nose. Distinctly savory and dry, with salty minerality currently dominating underlying fruit. Boasts good depth of flavor if not the power of the Narvaux; in a distinctly more elegant style. Best today on the long, sappy finish, which throws off notes of orange, flowers and spices. This need time in the cellar to blossom.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard told me he picked early in 2012 and late in 2013, starting at the beginning of October in the latter year.Still, he describes his 2012s as less bracing than his 2010s and thinks they will drink earlier but last well.And he finds the 2013s to be concentrated, "like the 2012s."He actually feared that the wines would be too high in acidity but noted that they're not turning out that way."The small crop in 2013 allowed for good material," he told me, "and we had clean grapes due to our organic farming."Jobard began using foudres and a few barriques from the Austrian cooper Stockinger in 2007 and now uses these barrels almost exclusively, although he pointed out that they're made from a blend of French, German and Austrian oak.Just a couple of Jobard's 2013s had finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late-spring visit, so my notes for most of these wines should be viewed as provisional.
2004 Meursault Les Chevalieres
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (from vines planted in 1940) Pure aromas of citrus, minerals and dusty stone. Juicy, tight and pure; firmly structured but not hard. The citrus and stone flavors offers excellent shape and lift. I like this style. May well merit an outstanding rating with four or five years of cellaring. Jobard racked all his wines into cuves last September and bottled them in March of this year.

Producer Commentary:
2011 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (aging entirely in a Stockinger foudre): Bright pale yellow. Complex aromas of pineapple oil, lemon, ginger and quinine; conveys a strong impression of soil tones. Tactile and chewy in the middle, with firm acidity giving it a penetrating, palate-dusting character. Even brighter on the long, rising finish than the Genevrieres. This was 12.5% natural alcohol bumped up to 13%.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March.This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages:"the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008."Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range.Production was down 40% from a normal year.Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes.The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard.He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee.Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2011 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (from a crop level under 25 hectoliters per hectare, said Jobard, who pulled up these degenerating 1970 vines on SO4 rootstock after the harvest): Bright, light yellow. Rich, ripe aromas of peach, butter and hazelnut lifted by a high-pitched note of orange zest. Powerful, thick and concentrated but also quite juicy, with quintessential Charmes flavors of lemon, orange, vanilla and oatmeal. Nothing overripe here! This fruit bomb spreads out nicely on the palate and finishes rich, satisfying and long. Has the balance to give early pleasure as well as the stuffing to age. Clearly the best of these 2011s.

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations.I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished.Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance.The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s.Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite.The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage.The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized.Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees.But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
2001 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 92.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (14% alcohol) Very ripe aromas of apple and spice. Offers an almost sweet impression on entry, but strong acids give the citric and apple blossom flavors excellent penetration. Very unevolved Charmes, finishing quite dry, almost tannic. The most promising of a very impressive set of young 2001s.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2000 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: More expressive, aromatic nose than the Genevrieres: nectarine, apple, citrus skin and spices. More powerful on the attack, then fatter and richer in the mouth; showing more texture and volume than the Genevrieres but still a bit reticent. Perhaps a bit less precise, though.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2010 Meursault Les Charmes
Color: White

Score: 93.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale bright yellow. Subdued but very pure aromas of fresh stone fruits, peach pit, menthol and wet stone. Sweet, rich and generous, showing more harmonious acidity today than the Genevrieres. Shut down dramatically in the glass but this should still provide pleasure earlier than the Genevrieres, which is a tad finer but will need time to knit.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March. This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages: "the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008." Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range. Production was down 40% from a normal year. Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes. The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard. He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee. Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
1997 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Lime and spice aromas marred by hints of varnish and resin. Fat and sweet, with a flavor of mandarin orange. Finishes with a suggestion of damp earth. This was one of Jobard freshest '97s a year ago from barrel, so I was surprised to find the finished wine so evolved. Perhaps not a representative bottle.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard says 1998 is very much like '97, but not quite as rich and with slightly lower acidity. Sugar levels in '98 were a bit lower-typically in the 13% to 13.5% range, "but not 14%, as in '97." Jobard prefers his '97s for their gras even though he admits that the sheer fat of these wines has a tendency to mask their terroir character. "1996 is a better vintage for those who want to see the differences between our various soils." Jobard presses his grapes slowly and gently; because he begins with clean bourbes he does not need to do more than 12 hours of decanting. In both '98 and '97, says Jobard, the lees were relatively pale and clean, so he put about 80% of the lees back into the wines. Incidentally, Jobard uses the traditional cordon du royat pruning approach, normally utilized in higher-vigor sites and unusual today for chardonnay in Burgundy. He says this pruning techniques gives him smaller yields and a degree more of potential alcohol without sacrificing acidity. For the first time, Jobard bottled his '97s without filtration, though he emphasized that he had been steadily reducing filtration since 1992.
2004 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Ripe aromas of peach and hazelnut. At once rich, full and fruity and quite dry, with impressive volume for the vintage. Not particularly minerally today but boasts lovely finesse and finishes tactile and persistent, with subtle complexity.

Producer Commentary:
2018 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 2022 - 2030

Tasting notes: The 2018 Meursault Genevrières 1er Cru has a more backward and sulky bouquet compared to the Poruzot Dessus. The palate is better with orange zest and quince on the entry, quite tight and precise, although it is missing some persistence compared to the aforementioned Premier Cru on the finish. A bit "abrupt". 

Producer Commentary:
2008 Meursault Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 85.0

Drinking window: 2018 - 2022

Tasting notes: The 2008 Meursault 1er Cru Genevrières from Rémi Jobard has a mature, toffee apple scented bouquet that suggest that this will not improve further in bottle. The palate is ripe on the entry with tangerine and dried pineapple notes, just a touch of spice towards the finish, although it is now just missing a little tension to really convince. Drink this over the next three or four years. Tasted at Sarah Marsh's 2008 White Burgundy tasting.

Producer Commentary:
2015 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 2019 - 2027

Tasting notes: Palish yellow with green highlights. Musky but tight and subdued on the nose. Then densely packed and savory, conveying an almost glyceral texture to its very ripe flavors of apple, white peach and spices. In a very round style but an element of saline minerality gives cut to the wine's deep, intense fruit flavors. This premier cru's building minerality gives grip to its long finish.

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2010 Meursault Les Genevrieres
Color: White

Score: 93.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (14.05% alcohol with 4.6 g/l acidity): Pale, bright straw-yellow. Riesling-like peach and pineapple on the nose. Rich and superripe; by far the sweetest of these 2010s to this point. Tangy orange and spice flavors are nicely supported by brisk acidity. Superconcentrated, sexy Meursault with a tactile, very long finish that currently shows a youthfully bitter edge. For the cellar.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March. This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages: "the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008." Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range. Production was down 40% from a normal year. Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes. The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard. He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee. Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
2014 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru
Color: White

Score: 93.0

Drinking window: 2020 - 2030

Tasting notes: (this fruit was picked at 12.2% potential alcohol and was chaptalized to 13%): Pale lemon-yellow color. Complex, refined aromas of white peach, citrus fruits, nut oil and white flowers. Dense, tactile and saline, boasting terrific purity and precision to its piquant fruit and rocky mineral flavors. This very classy wine finishes with succulent salinity and terrific juicy length. The yield here was around 40 hectoliters per hectare, the highest among these Meursault bottlings, but this wine displays lovely balance and an exhilarating light touch.

Producer Commentary:
Rémi Jobard was an early harvester in 2014, picking between September 10 and 17. He told me that there was a bit of botrytis at the end but that he had brought in all of his Meursault grapes by then. He bottled his ‘14s in February, as is his usual practice, and although he chaptalized a bit, he told me that none of his 2014s are higher than 13% alcohol. Jobard stressed that he prefers his 2014s to his 2015s today.
2006 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of soft citrus fruits, honey, nuts and toast. Supple, ripe and gentle, with fat flavors of peach and vanilla. This slightly warm wine doesn't quite come alive. Drink over the next year or two.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2015 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2018 - 2023

Tasting notes: Pale, bright lemon-yellow with green highlights. Aromas of yellow fruits and citrus peel, plus an element of charred oak (this wine gets 20% new wood, including some foudres). Fresh and pure on the palate, showing an element of oaky power to the flavors of yellow stone fruits, lemon and spices. Finishes with firm acid grip and a piquant note of grapefruit. (Incidentally, Jobard's 2015 Bourgogne Blanc Classique, made from six parcels up to 40 years of age, displays an inviting green-tinged yellow color; sexy scents of lemon, lime and hazelnut; and fresh flavors of stone and citrus fruits, acacia flower and spices. It's impressively concentrated, energetic and long for its category and not a bit over the top.)

Producer Commentary:
Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."
2011 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pineapple and lemon oil on the nose, lifted by floral and peppery nuances. Silky and sweet, with solid acidity enlivening the pineapple fruit. Finishes quite dry--even a bit skinny--with a note of quinine.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March.This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages:"the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008."Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range.Production was down 40% from a normal year.Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes.The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard.He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee.Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.
1999 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Spicy aromas of lemon, lime and flower blossom. Dense, sweet and tactile but nicely firm. This has excellent stuffing and grip for a village wine from this large vintage.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.
2007 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. High-pitched aromas of lemon, lime, warm stones, flowers and spearmint. Structured for a village wine, with good citric cut giving the wine a pleasing sugar/acid balance. Finishes with a savory saline minerality.

Producer Commentary:
Among the new developments here: Jobard has 77 ares of Meursault Narvaux as of 2008, and beginning with 2011 the domain will be officially organic. On my June visit I focused on the 2007s from bottle as the 2008s were in mid-malo. Jobard described 2007 as a generous year, having yielded wines with "a lot of nervosite but also a lot of material." But he would not have said that during their elevage, he told me. "Early on, I compared 2007 to 2004, but now I think they're more like the 2005s in their length on the palate, even if they're not quite as hard on the attack," he explained. Jobard began harvesting on September 1, with what he described as "correct" sugar levels. He wondered out loud if he would have benefitted from picking five days later-or would have gotten flat wines. Based on my tasting in June, he made a good choice.
2012 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (tasted from foudre; finished its malo a month before my visit but not yet sulfited): Pale, bright yellow-green. Aromas of ripe apple, pear, peach and hazelnut. Rich and ripe on entry, then juicy and firm-edged in the middle, with flavors of underripe pineapple and fresh herbs accented by pepper and crushed stone. The peppery quality carries through on the finish.

Producer Commentary:
Tasting the 2012s here was an adventure, as the wines were at all stages of their malolactic fermentations. I have offered notes only on the three wines that had finished. Jobard describes 2012 as a rich vintage with very good balance. The wines are dense but flattering, he went on, to drink before the more powerful 2010s. Grape sugars in 2012 were in the high 12.7% to 13.5% range, he told me, but there was no surmaturite. The premier cru vineyards provided the best grapes in 2012, said Jobard, because they flowered earlier and avoided serious hail damage. The 2011s, in contrast, began at 12% to 12.5% and were chaptalized. Jobard presses his grapes very gently and doesn't get much in the way of lees. But he does very little settling of the must so whatever lees there are go into the barrel.
2007 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 86.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pure, scented aromas of lemon, lime and mint. Sweeter and lusher on entry than the nose suggests, then pure and lean in the middle, with a slightly tart lemony quality on the finish.

Producer Commentary:
"I picked early in 2007, maybe too early," said Remi Jobard, who began on September 1 and chaptalized his musts up to a full degree (he began with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%). Jobard described the new set of wines as pure, minerally and very aromatic but quite dry, with no roundness or suppleness. "They're for the experienced Burgundy lover," he told me. Jobard believes that his very rich 2006s will be drinkable young, but that the '07s will need time. The '07s finished very dry, at no more than one gram per liter of residual sugar, according to Jobard. Incidentally, Jobard recently purchased about three-quarters of a hectare of vines in Meursault Narvaux.
2000 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromatic nose of soft citrus fruits, lemon and oak spice. Supple, sweet and fresh, with soft but adequate acidity. Not especially complex but harmonious and juicy.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2001 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 89.5

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Tangerine, lemon, apple, hazelnut and nut oil on the nose. Fat, dense and chewy, with sweet, fruit-driven flavors of apple and nectarine. This has more stuffing and length than the 2000 version. A potentially excellent village Meursault.

Producer Commentary:
Like a number of his neighbors in the village, Remi Jobard feels that the 2001 harvest in Meursault produced slightly denser wines than the previous year, "but in the same register of aromas. There were fewer and smaller grapes, and thus more concentration." Jobard noted that two-thirds of his vines are trained according to cordon royat which is very sensitive to cold weather during the flowering. Yields in 2001 were in the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range, compared to 50 in 2000. Jobard told me he waited a long time to pick, watching most of his neighbors out in their vines. The grapes deepened in color and gained concentration; there was a slight browning of the skins and a moderate loss of acidity but no aromas of surmaturite or rot. So far, 2001 is the vintage of the century," he deadpanned. Vintage two thousand, Jobard adds, produced supple, aromatic, congenial wines that will drink well young. Until 1999, Jobard bottled his wines prior to the next harvest, but he is now waiting longer (the 2000s were bottled in January and February of this year after having spent their last four or five months in foudres so as not to have to filter. This way we get rounder wines whose fruit and mineral components marry better with the wood. The later bottling also brings more aromatic purity. The wines keep their freshness and their citric character longer and develop more slowly."
2009 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 92.0

Drinking window: 2013 - 2013

Tasting notes: Jobard's 2009 Meursault Sous la Velle fills out its mid-weight frame nicely, with layers of pear, white peach and jasmine that flow effortlessly. Sweet floral notes resonate on the impeccably pure, classy finish. 

Producer Commentary:
This is a striking set of wines from Remi Jobard. The wines are characterized by finesse and elegance. Jobard began harvesting on September 1. He opted for a slow pressing that lasted 6-12 hours. The wines were racked into barrel with their fine lees. New oak was 15-20%. The wines spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. The 2009s were bottled in February and March, 2011. Jobard has also begun experimenting with larger barrels for some of his wines. The 2009 Meursault Narvaux aged in 950-liter barrel I tasted was hugely promising.
2003 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 85.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Very ripe, rather viognier-like aromas of apricot and honey. Fat, lush and sweet, with just enough acidity to maintain its shape. A full, honeyed, slightly warm wine with modest definition and cut. As in so many other cellars, it was a shock to taste the first 2003 following the 2004s.

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his young 2004s as "supple, sweet wines that will be very pleasant young. They don't have the acidity of '02 or '99 or '96, but they're perhaps a bit higher in acid than the '00s." Jobard told me he harvested very late, with potential alcohols around 13%. Little chaptalization was required for the Meursaults, he added, and with 5% or less of the fruit affected by oidium he felt he didn't need to do a selection. Like a number of his neighbors on the Cote d'Or, Jobard believes that 2003s that were bottled late will retain their freshness longer and age better, provided they had the requisite material in the first place. I did not have the chance to taste Jobard's negociant offerings, as they were aging in another cellar.
2011 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2014 - 2014

Tasting notes: A relatively rich, broad-shouldered Meursault, the 2011 Sous La Velle is all about structure. Juicy and expressive, the 2011 fills out its frame nicely. The flavors are expansive and ample from start to finish. Hints of smoke, yellow-fleshed fruit and light floral honey linger on the creamy, expressive finish.

Producer Commentary:
Remi Jobard's 2011s stand out for their delineation and overall sense of harmony. Readers will find plenty to admire in these utterly delicious and approachable whites. The harvest started on August 27. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by 6 months in steel. Jobard continues to experiment with aging his wines in larger foudre. I retasted both versions of the 2009 Meursault Narvaux, and found the wine aged in foudre a little bit fresher and more vibrant.
2008 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pale yellow. Quintessential Meursault aromas of citrus and stone fruits. Rich, supple and creamy, and already easy to drink. Nicely bright and gripping on the lingering finish. A lovely Meursault villages (Incidentally, Jobard's Bourgogne Blanc, made from parcels touching Meursault, caught my attention with its pure lemon and mineral character and firm acid backbone.)

Producer Commentary:
Jobard describes his 2009s as "big, ripe and rich, creamy but not at all acid-deficient; to drink on the early side." He liked the wines from the start and thought it a shame that they had to go through malolactic fermentation. But in the end, he said, he barely felt the difference pre and post; in fact, he told me that he didn't even know when the malos finished. Jobard did much less batonnage for the 2009s than he did for his 2008s or 2007s. Incidentally, I tasted Jobard's 2008s for the first time, as he picked later than most of his neighbors and had to wait until the summer of '09 for the malos to finish. Jobard told me his 1997s and 1998s were developing quickly and that his 2000s should also be drunk now. But the 2001s are almost reduced today, and still fresh, he went on, while the 2002s are downright young.
2018 Meursault Sous La Velle
Color: White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 2021 - 2027

Tasting notes: The 2018 Meursault Sous la Velle has a light peppermint tinged bouquet that opens nicely with aeration, revealing orange blossom and pink grapefruit aromas. The palate is well balanced with a very faint liquorice note on the entry, thereafter it just fails to deliver the precision and tension that this vineyard can produce. Not bad, but I would prefer to drink this in the short term. 

Producer Commentary:

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