1996 Meursault Genevrieres

The Meursault Genevrieres offers a rich nose of nuts and stones as well as a perfectly balanced, medium-bodied, and concentrated character. This is not your typical Genevrieres, jam-packed with ripe white or tropical fruits, but rather an elegant, mineral-filled wine. Its tightly wound, but expansive and layered flavor profile reveals terrific richness and extraction buttressed by powerful acidity. Drink it between 2005-2013. If I can locate any of this Meursault cuvee, I will be sure to save it for my nephew, Lucas, who was born in 1996. It should be still holding its peak by the time he is old enough to appreciate it. The rating, with the range of scores in parentheses, indicates the wine was tasted from cask, not bottle. The soft spoken Francois Jobard feels the 1996 vintage is "like 1985 but riper and with better concentration," it has "great richness in sugar and acidity" in his opinion. Jobard never performs a debourbage, and ages his wines in 10-12% new oak for village wines and 15-20% for the premier crus. Only masochists will open Jobard's '96s upon release. These are bracing wines that have extraordinary underlying richness but they require patience. While most vignerons in the Cote d'Or now perform extensive batonnage, Jobard does none. He told me his experience with wines whose lees were stirred often have " a faster evolution in the bottle" because of their loss of CO2. Interestingly enough, virtually every vigneron in Meursault I spoke with said Jobard's wines age better than any one else's in the village. Maybe he's on to something? Carbon dioxide is a by product of fermentation. It is trapped in the barrel and serves as a preservative, protecting the wine from oxygen. the batonnage technique involves removing the barrels bung, inserting a rake-like steel rod and briskly stirring the lees that have deposited to the bottom. Jobard theorizes that each time this technique is employed CO2 escapes the wine and oxygen enters, thereby promoting pre-mature aging. There is no doubt that wines produced by vignerons who stir the lees often taste mature at an early stage while Jobard's take years to open. Some older bottles from "batonneurs" I have tasted tend to bear out his theory, but I am not yet comfortable making a sweeping statement about their ageworthiness. Importers: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel (510) 524-1524, and Martine's Wines, San Raphael, CA; tel (415) 485-1800.

Initially mute nose exudes citric notes of lime, grapefruit and pineapple. Vibrant grapefruit and spice flavor expands in the mouth, showing terrific intensity. Not fat or fleshy but very strong in extract. Very fresh, clean, long finish stains the palate. A compelling wine with outstanding potential.