Meursault 1er Cru Les Charmes AOC 2023

A Meursault that manages two things at once: it opens up warmly and generously, while remaining firmly built. The colour is a pale lemon yellow with green reflections, bright and clear. A wine for the decanter and for large glasses.

The Premier Cru vineyard Les Charmes lies on the southern edge of Meursault, bordering Puligny-Montrachet, at around 260 to 280 metres in altitude with a south-easterly exposure. The soils are stony limestone marl with a high flint content, sparser than in the lower-lying parts of the village. Les Charmes is regarded as full-bodied and generous, while at the same time shaped by a pronounced minerality from its high limestone content.

Pure Chardonnay from biodynamically farmed vines, with strict yield control and selective hand-harvesting. The grapes are pressed slowly and gently, those picked in the morning for at least six hours, those picked in the afternoon often overnight. Fermentation happens spontaneously with indigenous yeasts. Ageing lasts around twelve months in large Stockinger casks and used pièces with a maximum of 20 percent new oak, after which the wine matures for a further six months in stainless steel tank. It is bottled unfiltered with a minimal addition of sulphur.

Rich and full-bodied, yet sinewy and taut, powerful and agile. A vertical thrust of acidity and a tightly woven mineral frame give the wine its contours. Nothing here feels soft or undefined, everything is firm and precise. On the nose, yellow apple, lemon blossom and mandarin lead into salty stone, joined by warm bun with salted butter, lemon curd, sorrel and chervil, in constant flux.

Rémi Jobard ages his wines in 600-litre Stockinger casks made of French, Austrian and Slavonian oak instead of small barriques: less wood contact per litre, slower oxygen exchange. Only about a fifth of the casks are renewed each year. The domaine has done without artificial fertilisers and pesticides since 1994, and without herbicides since 1998; the vine rows are worked by hand and cover-cropped. The wines gain stability through two winters of maturation rather than through technical intervention.