2007 Antione Jobard Puligny-Montrachet Le Trezin

In barrel and waiting almost imminent bottling when I last tasted it this past summer, Jobard’s 2007 Puligny-Montrachet Le Trezin smells of fresh lime, pit fruit distillates, and buddleia; offers a bright, refreshingly citric palate underlain by wet stones; and finishes energetically, with piquantly herbal, zesty, and cyanic notes. There is excellent concentration here, even a certain audacity of acidity, and a rather adamant sense of minerality, leading me to wonder whether it will show much charm in its first year in bottle. It seems as though this should be worth following for at least 5-6 years, though. Antoine Jobard’s avowed upholding of his father’s “classic style” – enhanced by late bottling but with exclusively passive lees contact – extends to his preference for 2007 over the obviously richer, lower-acid 2005 and 2006 vintages, and his analogy with 2004 “except finer, less vegetal, and straighter” is born out by parallel tasting. While these 2007s display the brightness of acids, strong mineral cast, and energy that are hallmarks of 2007, few white Burgundy collections of the vintage were as tight and restrained last summer as was Jobard’s. He began picking already on September 3 and finished in only a week, in large part to guard acidity, although his must weights were already ample, and the finished wines – certain of which were lightly chaptalized – typically in the upper 12s in percent alcohol. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524; also imported by Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400