2010 Meursault En La Barre

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.