2017 Meursault En La Barre

Antoine Jobard stepped into his father François’ shoes several years back and continues to establish himself as one of the top growers in Meursault. “The spring was quite warm,” Jobard told me in his barrel cellar. “The flowering didn’t go so well so we had smaller potential yield, the Village Crus half compared to normal, but it was better for the Premier Crus, around 50hl/ha in the end. We picked from 10 September. They are generous wines, ample and powerful, rounded with good matière [substance]. There is a good freshness. They are difficult to taste today as they were racked and sulphated just a week ago as the malos were late. The Meursaults are still in barrel on the lees. The alcohol levels are between 13.5° and 14.5°. I now have six hectares of red vines that gave very low yields, down to 7hl/ha in Beaune Les Epenottes 1er Cru. It was complicated. They were bottled the previous week. This is a fermage from Domaine Mussy in Pommard that I bought in August 2019, so my responsibility for the 2019s was only in terms of harvesting. I have renovated part of these vineyards in Pommard as there are a lot of old vines and I also replaced unproductive vines. But the basic material is very good. There is Pommard Pézerolles and Soucis that I replanted this year. For the red 2019s I focused on the quality of fruit but for the 2020s I had more equipment, and they were easier to vinify. The reds are all de-stemmed and had just been bottled. I will bottle the whites during November. All the whites received around 10% to 15% new oak.” As Jobard mentioned, this was not an ideal moment to taste his 2019s. Alas, sometimes it is just not possible to rearrange a visit during a packed itinerary, though I have considered this in my assessments. These are very fine whites, especially the Meursault Charmes and Poruzots. Elsewhere, I did find a little inconsistency where the summer heat waves just shaved away some of the potential tension. With regard to the reds, since Jobard had to work with the previous winemakers’ fruit, I can see why some of these were really “testing” grounds for Jobard working with Pinot Noir. I regard these as works in progress and I am more intrigued to taste the 2020s where Jobard has full responsibility and more equipment at his disposal.

Antoine Jobard has deftly slipped into his father François's shoes in terms of running the family domaine, just around the corner from Comtes-Lafon. His small barrel cellar lies under the house where I tasted his 2018s, augmented by two or three 2017s. One missing cru is his Puligny-Montrachet Champs Gain since it was pulled out last year. He assured me that the vines did not suffer too much hydric stress in the 2018 season. "We harvested from 31 August to 6 September. There were good yields. I was surprised by the quantity because it had been warm and dry, so the water must have stayed in the soils after the wet spring. All the wines spend one year in oak, 15% new, then racked at the end August, after which 80% continues their maturation in stainless steel vats and the rest remaining in oak up until the end of March." I asked Jobard for his view on the differences between the two vintages. His candid response was: "I think the 2018s have more fruit than the 2017s and, as well as the 2015s, will probably drink earlier than those."

I only tasted a few of Antoine Jobard’s 2017s (and will wait until next year to report on them in their finished form) as most of the wines were showing funky reduced aromas at the end of May and Jobard was not sure whether they had finished their malolactic fermentations. He planned to rack the wines at the end of July or beginning of August “and check the technical parameters then.” But he’s already confident that 2017 will be “a 20-year vintage” owing to the full maturity of the grapes (potential alcohols were in the lofty 13.5% 13.9% range).

Jobard is not convinced that the ‘16s will last as long, and he’d opt to drink them on the young side. He made just half of a normal crop overall in this complicated vintage, which featured a lot of rainfall and humidity—and thus mildew in the leaves—between the late-April frost and the end of July. He used no new oak for the 2016s, as he was afraid that “the wood would be too dominant and that the vintage couldn’t support it.” Grape sugars, he told me, were a degree lower in 2016 than in 2017, a vintage he described as opulent, but Jobard did not chaptalize his '16s. He told me that the style of the ‘16s was close to the ‘13s, “but with less acidity and more body. Both are vintages to drink in their youth,” he added. The ‘16s were bottled in March, as Jobard is now doing 18 months of élevage, one year in fûts and six months in tanks.

It was too early to taste Antoine Jobard’s 2016s, as the wines were still in the middle of their malolactic fermentations at the beginning of June. Jobard told me that it was very difficult to treat the vineyards in 2016 due to all the moisture in the soil in late spring and that he eventually had very little production and used no new oak barrels as there were so many tiny cuvées. “The wines have finesse but not a lot of material, and new oak would have dominated them,” he explained. He compared the '16s to his 2013s, “but with less acidity.”

I focused my attention on Jobard’s set of 2015s, which had been bottled during the weeks prior to my visit. Jobard told me that he’s “very optimistic about the 2015s,” adding that “it’s not an atypical vineyard but one of good ripeness—a bit like 2012 and fairly classic Burgundy.” He says the wines have "the iodiney side that brings one back for another glass." Jobard shortened his élevage in oak for the '15s in order to preserve freshness, and to bring a bit of reduction, noting that he thought the family’s wines in 2009 and 2003 were bottled a bit too late.

Antoine Jobard assured me that he hasn’t strayed from the vinification or extraction techniques practiced by his father François Jobard, but he noted that in 2014 he had to carry out a light filtration (the domain had stopped filtering 20 years ago). He’s always in search of greater precision, he told me. “Two thousand fifteen was plenty hot,” he told me, “but there was less drought stress than in 2003, as we benefitted from strategic rains in 2015. The wines are opulent but not exotic and the grapes were very ripe but perfectly clean."

Jobard bottled his 2014s at the beginning of May and will probably bottle the ‘15s even earlier—“as early as December or January, to preserve freshness and avoid heaviness.” In comparison, his father often bottled his top cuvées at the end of the second summer. My notes on Jobard’s young 2015s are provisional in nature and I have left out several of them as they were either very reduced or still fermenting their sugars at the time of my visit. Except for the Poruzots, production levels for the premier crus were healthy in 2015, but Jobard’s village parcels were still suffering the after-effects of the June 28 hailstorm in 2014.

Antoine Jobard racked his 2014s early, protected from oxygen, and kept most of the lees. The wines had been bottled a month before my visit at the end of May, which Jobard described as early, as his father François typically bottled his top wines nearly two years after the harvest. Antoine described his 2014s as "fleshy, round and powerful but also very fresh. They have better acidity than the 2012s, as well as stronger minerality. The 2012s are richer and more concentrated but don't have the same balance."

As is often the case in this deep cellar, the 2014s were in full malo and impossible to taste at the end of May. So I focused on the 2013s, which were scheduled to be racked two days after my visit and bottled in late June or July. Jobard told me he had not yet analyzed the '13s but that he harvested between September 26 and October 3, finishing just before two days of rain. Potential alcohol were mostly in the healthy 12.8% to 13% range and he did very little chaptalization. He finds the '13s to be a little like the 2010s on the nose but "a bit richer and more powerful on the attack. They're also fresher on the nose than the 2012s but less opulent and generous." The '13s rounded out nicely on their lees, said Jobard, adding that the first racking was in September of 2014.

Jobard does not do any stirring of the lees and he moves his wines into oak without a debourbage, beginning with a substantial seven or eight liters of lees per barrel. He told me he enjoys drinking the family estate's top bottlings at age seven or eight, "for their more refined texture and greater expressiveness." Still, he added, "the market today has less taste for older wines."

Antoine Jobard described his young 2013s as "very acid before the malolactic fermentations."Although he told me that they were not at the level of the 2012s, "they will have more class than the '11s."He harvested from September 26 through October 4 as "there was nothing more to gain by waiting."Potential alcohol levels were in the healthy 12.5% to 13% range and a few wines were lightly chaptalized.Jobard was not sure which '13s had finished their malos as, like his father Francois, he does very little technical analysis prior to bottling his wines.But in any event, they were too reduced to taste this spring, with a number of them showing strong mercaptans.The 2012s, which Jobard planned to start bottling in June (they were last racked in September of 2013 but went back into futs with their fine lees), look to be harmonious and complete white Burgundies.He compared them to the estate's 2005s, adding that a few wines were a bit dried by hail damage and showed less-even ripeness."But they're good on the attack--not at all wimpy--and the crop was small," he pointed out."They show wet stone aromas similar to the 2005s and will be wines to age."Jobard vinifies uncrushed clusters, then does little cold setting of the must after the fermentation, bringing about six liters of lees into the barrels--a relatively high percentage of solids by current-day white Burgundy standards.

The malolactic fermentations are typically slow to finish in this chilly cellar, and 2012 was no exception.Antoine Jobard described the estate's problems with hail storms (Meursault on June 30 and the Puligny side on August 1) and noted that there was considerable difference between the hailed-on vines and those that were less affected.The vintage is "rich enough" and the vines affected by hail tended to retain more acidity, he told me."There's no reason in theory why the 2012s won't age," he said."We had healthy grapes with no botrytis or surmaturite."I will wait until next year to report on Jobard's 2012s, but my favorites in the early going included the Meursault Blagny, Poruzots and Charmes.The 2011s here clearly have less material, and Jobard fined the wines in barrel for the first time as he felt they had a green side."At the beginning I compared them to the 2007s, but the '07s are more saline, lemony and long.The biggest problem with the 2011s is that they taste different every time we try them.They were up and down during their elevage."Jobard lightly chaptalized some of the 2011s for the first time since he started working with his father Francois in 1998.Just a few of the 2011s had been bottled by the beginning of June; the rest were in cuve or barrel awaiting bottling at the end of the month.

This is a beautiful set of wines from Antoine Jobard. The 2011s stand out for their harmony and accessibility. I imagine most, if not all, of these wines will offer their finest drinking relatively early. The harvest started on August 29 and lasted 6 days. Jobard points out that the growing cycle lasted 115 days from flowering to harvest, which is quite long by any measure. The flowering, though very early, was without incident. Jobard is among the producers who favor lengthier élevage in barrel. His 2011s spent 18 months in barrel (20% new) followed by 2-3 months in tank. The Bourgogne, village wines and Puligny Champ Gains were all bottled in March, while the rest of the wines were scheduled to be bottled a few days after my visit.

As usual, it was too early here to taste the most recent vintage, as the 2011s were in the middle of their malolactic fermentations.Antoine Jobard told me that the family picked early, beginning on August 29, but that only the "cool cuvees" need a bit of chaptalization.He believes that more than a half degree of added sugar can be felt in the resulting wines."We can't make 1985 every year," he noted.The Jobards throw their whole clusters into a pneumatic press and then start the fermentations very quickly, without doing a settling of the must.Jobard compared 2011 to 2007 "but with less acidity."Incidentally, the Jobards picked quickly in 2010, beginning on September 19 and finishing just before it rained on the night of the 24th."After that it turned to autumn," said Jobard.The wines at this address are raised in just 15% to 20% new oak."More new oak risks tiring the wines when you do a long elevage, as we do," noted Jobard."And of course, more new oak plus earlier bottling is the modern style."Jobard himself is clearly taking these wines in a somewhat more modern direction, as most of the 2010s had been recently bottled in late April.In past years, the wines were still in barrel at the time of my late-spring visit.

Over the last few years Antoine Jobard's wines seem to have acquired quite a bit of finesse they didn't always have in the past. Jobard started harvesting on September 19 and found he had to bring in the fruit quickly, as bad weather was approaching. The long, drawn-out flowering took three weeks as opposed to 4-5 days when conditions are ideal, taking along with it around 30% of the total production, although some sites were hit even harder. At the time of my visit, all of the 2010s were in bottle, except for the Poruzots and the Genevrières, which I tasted from tank. So far, the 2011s look promising. In 2011, the range will include a new wine, the Puligny-Montrachet premier cru Champ Gain. In 2012, Jobard will add a bottling from the St. Aubin premier cru Sur le Sentier du Clou.

The 2010s here were in the middle of their malolactic fermentations at the beginning of June--no surprise in this cold cellar. Antoine Jobard noted that the crop in 2010 was very small, and that the wines are better balanced than the 2009s owing to their healthier acidity. Although the family's vines were not hit by hail, considerable coulure, especially on the hillsides and in the old vines, reduced the yields. A number of the crus, said Antoine, were down 60% from 2009's production, and the estate made even less wine than in 2008. When I asked Antoine what changes he has made to this domain's very traditional practices since taking over responsibility for winemaking, he told me that he's picking four or five days earlier than his father Francois did. "My father likes 14% potential alcohol but I prefer 13%," he explained. Francois never did a decanting of the must, but Antoine now does two or three hours of debourbage to eliminate reduction and bitterness, which he feels are difficult qualities for young, uninitiated tasters to deal with. He breaks certain cuvees into two parts, decanting half for a few hours but keeping all the lees with the other portion. Even after a wine has been in barrel for a year, it still contains seven or eight liters of lees, and this "dirty juice" may well partly explain why this domain has had very few problems over the years with premature oxidation. Jobard also plans to raise the percentage of new oak here from 15% to about 25%. He would like to shorten the elevage a bit, as he doesn't want to lose fruit and freshness. In fact, the 2009s were in bottle by the time of my visit: they were racked in March and bottled in early May. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant)

This is a fabulous set of wines from Antoine Jobard. The wines are distinguished for their sheer elegance and classiness. The harvest began on September 9. The wines were bottled in April, with a light filtration on the last 10-15 liters of each barrel.

As long-time subscribers know, I don't generally bother providing tasting notes on the newest vintage from this domain because the malos generally finish very late here and the bottling doesn't take place until nearly two years after the harvest. But this year a number of the rather low-acid 2009 barrels were already through their secondary fermentations by the end of May, and Antoine Jobard, who was concerned about the risk of getting heavy wines, seemed quite willing to show them. "There was a lot of material in 2009, although 13.3% was our maximum alcohol," he told me, adding that 2009 was a bit like 2005 in style. He made it clear that, to him at least, the 2008s "have more interesting acidity at the end of the mouth." But the very late malos in '08 caused father Francois and son Antoine to skip their normal July racking. In fact, the wines spent at least 18 months on their lees before being racked, as the Jobards did not want to put them back into barrel after the racking. Once the wines were taken off their lees, the Jobards simply stabilized them in tank for a month and then bottled them. The Jobards do barely a two-hour debourbage, starting with "dirty" juice but not doing any batonnage. This formula has clearly been successful, because this domain's wines have been mostly immune to problems with premature oxidation through the years. One exception was 1999, said Antoine, the year the family switched to a bottling machine (previously they did a gentle manual bottling). The bottling that year was too rough and the wines lost gas during the process, he told me. "The 375-ml. bottles we did by hand are fresher today."

It should come as no surprise to long-time followers of this traditional estate in Meursault that Antoine Jobard prefers 2007 to 2006. "I like the minerally vintages," he summarized, channeling his father Francois. "Two thousand seven gave us more typical Burgundy chardonnay than the more flattering, exotic 2006s. But I understand that the typical consumer will find them austere next to the 2006s, as they have very good acidity and are very dry." Jobard described the 2007s as "like the 2004s but with more material." The wines certainly don't lack for richness, coming in at around 13% alcohol, without chaptalization for the crus. Jobard told me he would wait until about 2015 to enjoy the 2007s, but that it was possible to drink the 2006s now. I didn't even think about tasting 2008s here, as they were in the middle of their malolactic fermentations.

Jobard told me that his vines produced 50 to 53 hectoliters per hectare in 2006, compared to 40 in 2005. While the not-yet-bottled '05s struck me as deeper than the '06s, they are also higher in alcohol-in the 14% to 14.5% range, according to Jobard. I will hold off on rating Jobard's '06s, as some of these wines needed the sweetening influence of a racking on my late spring visit. The Puligny villages, Meursault Blagny and Meursault Genevrieres were my early favorites among the '06s: all of these displayed a captivating balance of sweetness and acidity while avoiding any undue exotic character. These wines are always slow to evolve, and are not bottled until the second summer; some of the 2005s did not finish their malolactic fermentations until after the harvest of 2006.

Jobard reminded me that he started harvesting in 2003 on September 3, "after most people had finished." Jobard, who began vinifying on his own in 1964, describes the young 2003s as having "the richness of 1947 but not the same finesse." He reported that he harvested his fruit in 2004 with potential alcohol in the 13%-13.5% range and did not chaptalize; the 2003s were only a hair higher in alcohol, he added. The new vintage required a lot of selection both in the vines and in the winery. The young 2004s were extremely leesy and funky at the beginning of June (Jobard's wines are typically slow to finish their fermentations), and thus I will report on these wines next year. The estate's top three '04s, though, showed very strong potential.

The rain on August 28 restored the greenness to the vines and allowed the vegetative cycle, which had stopped for two weeks, to continue, said Francois Jobard. The rain softened the grapes, which had become tough from roasting in the sun. "Jobard was one of a few producers who told me he did not acidify his musts prior to fermentation, as he believed this would have dried the wines. All of the malolactic fermentations had finished by the time of my visit at the beginning of Ju ne. Incidentally, Jobard is not convinced that 2003 is a vintage that's only suited for drinking young. In 1964 the wines had almost no acidity, and the wines are still good," he maintained. They have always remained fresh. "(Kermit Lynch, Berkeley CA

The rain on August 28 restored the greenness to the vines and allowed the vegetative cycle, which had stopped for two weeks, to continue, said Francois Jobard. The rain softened the grapes, which had become tough from roasting in the sun. "Jobard was one of a few producers who told me he did not acidify his musts prior to fermentation, as he believed this would have dried the wines. All of the malolactic fermentations had finished by the time of my visit at the beginning of Ju ne. Incidentally, Jobard is not convinced that 2003 is a vintage that's only suited for drinking young. In 1964 the wines had almost no acidity, and the wines are still good," he maintained. They have always remained fresh. "(Kermit Lynch, Berkeley CA

Jobard describes 2002 as an ample vintage, with a lot of fat, sufficient acidity and good structure for aging. The crop was smaller than that of 2001; the 2002s, he told me, have more alcoholic richness but acid levels are not higher than those of the previous year. In fact, Jobard went on, there's not a big difference in quality among the last four vintages, except that the 2000s are a bit more delicate in style. Potential alcohols in both 2001 and 2002 were in the high 12.5% to 13% range, requiring almost no chaptalization in 2001 and none at all in 2002. The 2002s had for the most part finished their secondary fermentations by the time of my visit, but had not yet been sulfited.

Francois Jobard told me that 2001 "was extremely rich in sugar though because it retained good acidity, the resulting wines are well balanced and quite long. Most parcels were harvested at around 13% and as such we didn't chaptalized. They are also more expressive than the 2000s were at the same point in time and there is perhaps a bit more density as yields were down approximately 10% year over year. And while it is too soon to tell, they may age just as well if not better than the 2000s." The present plan is to bottle in April for the lower level wines and in July for the rest. Martine's Wines, Novato, CA and Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, CA).

Jobard describes 2002 as an ample vintage, with a lot of fat, sufficient acidity and good structure for aging. The crop was smaller than that of 2001; the 2002s, he told me, have more alcoholic richness but acid levels are not higher than those of the previous year. In fact, Jobard went on, there's not a big difference in quality among the last four vintages, except that the 2000s are a bit more delicate in style. Potential alcohols in both 2001 and 2002 were in the high 12.5% to 13% range, requiring almost no chaptalization in 2001 and none at all in 2002. The 2002s had for the most part finished their secondary fermentations by the time of my visit, but had not yet been sulfited.

Francois Jobard told me that 2001 "was extremely rich in sugar though because it retained good acidity, the resulting wines are well balanced and quite long. Most parcels were harvested at around 13% and as such we didn't chaptalized. They are also more expressive than the 2000s were at the same point in time and there is perhaps a bit more density as yields were down approximately 10% year over year. And while it is too soon to tell, they may age just as well if not better than the 2000s." The present plan is to bottle in April for the lower level wines and in July for the rest. Martine's Wines, Novato, CA and Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, CA).