2003 Meursault Les Chevalières

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.

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.