2012 Meursault Sous la Velle

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.

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.