2005 Meursault En La Barre

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.