2014 Meursault Les Narvaux

Rémi Jobard was an early harvester in 2014, picking between September 10 and 17. He told me that there was a bit of botrytis at the end but that he had brought in all of his Meursault grapes by then. He bottled his ‘14s in February, as is his usual practice, and although he chaptalized a bit, he told me that none of his 2014s are higher than 13% alcohol. Jobard stressed that he prefers his 2014s to his 2015s today.

I had the chance to taste with Charles Jobard, as his son Rémi had family obligations on Pentecost Monday at the end of May. Charles told me that Rémi started vinifying the family's wines in 1992 at the tender age of 21. He also noted that the estate has had three consecutive years with about half a normal crop, as Meursault was especially hard-hit by hail in 2014. The 2013s here were showing very well, considering that they had been bottled about three months prior to my visit.

I was intrigued to hear Jobard Sr's. take on the estate's modern style and earlier harvesting under his son's regime. As we tasted a very perfumed, floral Bourgogne Blanc from 2013, he noted that, "in the old days our customers would have found this wine green." Indeed, Charles Jobard is not the only Burgundy oldtimer who fondly recalls the thick, yellow, less squeaky-clean but more extract-rich white Burgundies of the '70s and '80s.