From: Burgundy, France

Varietal: Pinot Noir

Taste: "A ripe and full-on nose speaks mostly of various dark berries and pungent earth aromas. The succulent, round and delicious middle weight flavors possess good volume for a wine at this level, all wrapped in a lingering and lightly rustic finale. To enjoy young." –Burghound

Pairing: The bold finesse of this Pommard-sourced Bourgogne Rouge calls for more substantial pairings, including magret duck, duck confit, other roasted game birds, pork chops, and strong cheeses such as époisses. To make your own, we recommend Daniel Gritzer's Sous Vide Duck Confit recipe.

About this wine. Many thanks to importer KLWM for the following information. Jobard's 2020 Bourgogne Rouge is a blend of four lieux-dits (1.5 ha) in Pommard: L’Aumônne, Taupe Maison Dieu, En la Taupe, and Les Crenilles. The hand-harvested fruit is destemmed and cold soaked for five-days, followed by 10 days of fermentation. Finished wines are bottled unfined and, in some vintages, lightly filtered. 

About, in general. François Jobard was one of the first vignerons Kermit imported when he began prospecting for wines in France in the 1970s. The relationship has endured into the next generation, and François’ son Antoine now runs the domaine. This is as classy and as consistent a property as you’ll find in Burgundy, and theirs are generally counted among the best Meursaults. Other respected vignerons like Coche and Raveneau hold these wines in the highest esteem and are generous with their praise when Jobard comes up in conversation.

Among the highlights from the domaine is Jobard’s stunning Bourgogne Blanc, which is routinely one of the best to carry that appellation. Their Meursault En la Barre is an outstanding value from an assiduously tended vineyard plot located just behind their home, and their enviable line-up of premier cru white Burgundies includes Meursault Poruzots, Blagny, Genevrières, and Charmes, each with its inimitable charms. Recently, they added Tillets to their list, the excellent vineyard that Roulot fans know and love – a high-elevation, very stony lieu-dit. Finally, their Puligny-Montrachet Le Trézin comes from another steep hillside parcel above the Hameau de Blagny and is always textbook Puligny, chiseled and fine-grained.

All the Jobard wines are aged in barrel and spend a lengthy period of time sur lie in their cellars in Meursault. They are the last of our white Burgundies to come to the market every year due to their unhurried approach to vinification and typically slow malolactic fermentations. In their youth, these wines are often tightly wound with an intense mineral structure that only begins to soften with extended bottle aging. Though François and Antoine work side by side, Antoine has brought his own signature to the domaine: a more sensuous approachability to the wines, all delicious and ready to drink immediately. That said, the Jobard legacy lives on, and the wines will still explode with intense aromas of honeycomb and stone later in life. If you just can’t wait, there’s no reason not to uncork.

The Jobard family produced red wine for many years, most notably from the Blagny 1er Cru La Pièce Sous le Bois. They pulled the vines after the 2006 vintage to replant the vineyard to Chardonnay, and Antoine has been looking for a way to make red wine again ever since. In August of 2019, Antoine was able to lease the vineyards of the Domaine André Mussy, a once-thriving domaine in Pommard. The vineyards are completely organic, having never seen chemicals, and Antoine spent a lot of time revitalizing them well in advance of the 2019 harvest–an effort that really showed in his brilliant first effort from these vines. He farms 6 hectares in all, featuring a collection of village and premier cru wines from Beaune, Volnay, and Pommard.