2011 Meursault Sous la Velle

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.

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.

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.