1999 Meursault Le Poruzots

Remi Jobard describes his '00s as "fat, supple wines, like the '97s but with a bit more acidity." Sugar levels were higher here in 2000 than in the previous year. Jobard told me he did more lees stirring in '99 than in '00. "In 2000, the malos happened quickly," he explained. "Stirring the lees would have de-gassed them, which would have risked loss of freshness and possibly resulted in heavy wines." For the first time, Jobard bottled his '99s late, in February of 2001; previously he bottled in September. He is now able to prolong the levage by keeping the wines in cuve for another five or six months.

Remi Jobard, who has been in charge of winemaking at the family domain since 1994 (his father Charles retired after the '96 vintage), has introduced a host of changes since then. At the outset, he switched to cordon de royat a system of training the vines used by such veteran growers as Fran?s Jobard and Jean-Francois Coche, but now being instituted by a growing number of top domains to limit yields. Jobard has also adopted a gentler, longer pressing designed to enable him to rack the wine directly to barrel without a decanting. In '98, for the first time, Jobard gave a few of his white wines an extended 16-month levage Grape sugars ranged widely in '99, from 12.5% for the Poruzots to 14.3% for the Charmes. These are very rich, classic Meursaults, occasionally on the cusp of overripeness.