2013 Meursault En La Barre

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."