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95 WA.
"Aromas of light reduction dissipate to reveal notes of crisp green orchard fruit, wheat toast, iodine and dried white flowers, introducing Jobard's 2017 Meursault 1er Cru Genevrières, a medium to full-bodied, satiny and enveloping wine that's concentrated and incisive, its deep and layered core girdled with racy acids. Long, penetrating and saline, this is a brilliant Genevrières that's more voluminous than the Poruzot and more elegant than the Charmes—and while it's hard to pick a favorite between the Jobard "big three," this gets my vote this year. When I tasted these wines from barrel last year, I wrote that Antoine Jobard's incisive but concentrated style was a perfect match for the 2017 vintage, and that contention was resoundingly confirmed by their performance in bottle. Antoine took over from his father, François, in 2004, but the rudiments of winemaking here haven't changed: long fermentations, protracted sur-lie élevage without stirring and moderate percentages of new wood are still the order of the day. In the 2015 vintage, Jobard's wines underwent fully 20 months of élevage, the last eight being spent in stainless steel tank, a medium that resulted in much more pronounced reduction than is the case when the wines spend their second winter in wood. Accordingly, he tells me, he has decided to subject his 2017s to a shorter stay in steel—a sensible decision, to my mind. Given Jobard's preference for long élevage, I have decided it is more interesting to review his finished wines in bottle rather than attempting to assess them a year into their élevage, when they are sometimes still troubled by suspended lees or otherwise inscrutable; so I look forward to reporting on his 2018s next year." Wine Advocate Interim, Feb 2020 |