2015 Meursault Les Narvaux

Grape sugars were a bit lower in 2016 than in 2015, Rémi Jobard told me at the beginning of June, but once again he has some cuvées that finished with up to 2.5 grams per liter residual sugar. Jobard described his ‘16s as less concentrated than the earlier set of wines. “The ‘16s are more airy than the ‘15s but they don’t have a big structure,” he said. “And they are less supple than the ‘14s.” But he emphasized that the ‘16s are harmonious for wines from a frost year—“unlike the ‘98s.” Yields were generally in the range of 25 to 30 hectoliters per hectare in 2016, but Jobard told me he made 50 h/h in Genevrières.

Production was generally between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 due to a difficult flowering, said Jobard, who considers the finished wines to be “richer than the 2009s but better balanced and not heavy.” He finds them very attractive today but suggests that it’s probably best to wait three or four years to uncork them. He added that "the 2014s were delicious early but are closed now."

Rémi Jobard harvested his Chardonnay between September 3 and 9, reminding me that he picks earlier than his father did. The crop level was a bit higher in 2015 than it was the previous year, when he made half of a normal crop due to hail. “The 2015s are very ripe, rich and dense but they’re not pineappley,” Jobard told me. “They will be good to drink young but probably have the material to age. It’s a very ripe, fruity vintage, and the wines will take on a honeyed character as they age," he predicted, adding that his 2009s were heavier wines by comparison. The malolactic fermentations mostly finished in January but a few of the wines still had a bit of sugar left to ferment.