2010 Meursault Sous la Velle

Remi Jobard began by showing me his very strong 2010s, which he bottled in March.This vintage, he said, combines the best traits of the two previous vintages:"the concentration and rich attack of 2009 and the invigorating vividness of 2008."Jobard said he picked most of his parcels "on the early side for the village" in 2010, but potential alcohols were nonetheless in the 13.7% to 14% range.Production was down 40% from a normal year.Jobard told me that the 2011 malos were all finished by the December after the harvest, which is very early in this cold cellar, and that the wines didn't change much during the secondary fermentations as there wasn't a lot of malic acidity in the grapes.The 2011s have supple mid-palates but also very good acidity, said Jobard.He drew my samples from one-year-old barrels, which he felt would be most representative of each cuvee.Jobard continues to use numerous casks from the Austrian firm Stockinger, which he believes accentuates the aromas of his wines.

Remi Jobard describes the 2010s as having the richness of the 2009s and the elegance of the 2008s. I suppose that's as good a description as any. Jobard began bringing in his 2010s on September 21. Yields are down a whopping 40-50%, but in exchange Jobard has a superb set of wines that are rich yet not at all heavy. It is a vintage in which the personality of each of these sites comes through in spades. As I mentioned last year, Jobard is among the small but growing number of white Burgundy producers experimenting with foudres, which seems to work especially well with his wines. The Narvaux, Genevrières, Poruzots are partly aged in foudre, while the Charmes is done entirely in foudre.