by Putnam Weekley

2003 Remi Jobard Bourgogne Blanc
2002 Dugat-Py Bourgogne Rouge

  |

hese two wines prove how important it is NOT to "taste" wine blind. Blind evaluations may eliminate brand bias but they disconnect wine from the things that makes it intelligible. Often in blind tasting much creepier forms of bias can take hold (in favor of sweetness, alcoholic strength, color, etc.)

The Remi Jobard is Chardonnay, some of it grown in Meursault. To me it seemed like a quintessential 'White Burgundy' - classy and pure. Anne and I drank it not so much with an arugula salad topped with grilled summer squash as we did before and after it. It might have been a green echo of the salad, but at one point I couldn't help but blurt out the cumbersome wine geek phrase: "do you get ...?" I wanted to know if Anne tasted "lime." "Do you get lime?" I asked. "I get lime." This was a subversive little impression that arose after a long flirtation with whisper-dry honey aromas.

Only a quick review of this site (with excerpts below*) made me search for aromas of raw hazelnuts. Meursault "had" hazelnuts I was always taught. Granted, a hot vintage like 2003 might "erase" hazelnut-flavored terroir, but I think it was there indeed. Perhaps it was "almonds."

We drained the bottle on the porch while observing the sunset and a troop of 8-12 year old boys on bikes playing harmlessly in the intersection below.

At first the Dugat-Py rubbed me the wrong way. I was already preparing for a disagreement with Tom Natoci, who prognosticated that this would be one of the best Burgundies Cloverleaf has offered in some time. To me it tasted oaky, like Bernard Dugat's other wines, only without the flesh required to absorb the oak. It was astringent and skinny.

Of course I thought about the many encounters I've had with Dugat-Py: Gevry-Chambertin, Gevry-Chambertin Evocelles, Mazis-Chmbertin, etc. I thought about the possible barrel selection process, about how some wine drinkers like the taste of oak.

All of a sudden I really liked the wine.

I don't believe that it was the result of some kind of bias either. Rather, what happened, as so often happens, was that fond memories of the other works of this author carried me through the impenetrable, challenging beginning. Without that
experience my attention might have been lost from this wine. I'd have opened something more familiar, and cheaper.

Now I feel a sense of privilege. I'm drinking a practical, wiry, in fact fleshy Gevry-like Pinot Noir. It cuts a deep groove of wood-oriented spice resins, but these are handed off neatly to vinous, fruit-born resins that only Pinot Noir seems to deliver with such authority.

Tom was right, as he so often is.

I recommend both of these wines. I needed more patience with the red. Both are better served at the warm side of the standard temperature range.

*Remi Jobard is the "intelligent and dynamic son" of Charles Jobard, the brother of Francois, and this domaine, now being run by Remi "is truly a family run operation, with Remi's mother doing all the bottling by hand"... that is indeed an "up and coming estate".* With the scores in the low 90s from The Wine Advocate, and up to 94 points in The Wine Spectator, and rave reviews in the French press, the secret is now definitely out on Remi Jobard. And why not, when he makes such delicious expressions from such great Meursault parcels that too often these days are not always producing the exciting wines that can potentially be made? In fact, when one starts tasting through his offerings, it is amazing just how great his Bourgogne is - it tastes like a really excellent Meursault.

From Le Classement 1999 Revue du Vin de France

"Less known than that of his brother Francois, the domaine of Charles Jobard, situated on the same terroirs, has seen during the last two years a formidable progression thanks to the new generation. Whereas before the wines tended to lack fatness and purity, they have regained, particularly in 1994 (put into commercialization in 1996) the allure which one expects in a great Meursault  - with noble aromas of honey, citrus and nuts, as well as imposing body. An address to be followed."

Pierre Rovani, The Wine Advocate

Previously in Putnam's Monthly:

Wine and Money

BACK TO THE TOP

Putnam Weekley's Home Page and Main Index

© Putnam Weekley 2005