Domaine Antoine Jobard

The history of this domaine is not overly complicated, but it does stretch back to the late 19th century and has seen five generations at the helm since that time. François Jobard began working with his father, Pierre, at the domaine back in 1957, Pierre having taken over from his father, also called Pierre, who would have overseen the estate since the 1920s or possibly just before. In 1971, when Pierre (the father rather than the grandfather) retired, the estate was divided up between François and his brother Charles, whose share would later become Domaine Rémi Jobard.

A few years later, François would start bottling his own production, having previously followed the family tradition of selling the fruit off to negotiants. He would continue working at the domaine until completing his 50th vintage in 2007! By that time, he had been working alongside his son Antoine for five years, and both were ready for Antoine to assume full control.

Under François’ direction, the wines were typically quite backward, certainly reticent in youth and a far cry from the general perception of Meursault as rich and nutty. François would bottle his wines quite late, almost two years after the harvest, having allowed the wines to evolve very quietly in barrel with little intervention. Over time Antoine has adapted his approach, but more by evolution than revolution, bottling a little earlier but still following the idea of a second winter in the cellar.

In conversation, Antoine and I discussed how he has responded to the change in climate over the past ten years in terms of vinification, as I wondered whether he felt that had a vintage like 2022 come along 20 years ago, the same style and quality of wines would have been made then as has been made now. Like me, he was sceptical, and pointed to the warm and powerful 2015 vintage as being the turning point for him, when he started to look at things differently in the cellar and make changes to his vinification.

Certainly, if we look back at 2003, when vignerons harvested incredibly early following a very hot summer, the low-acid, charmless wines made in that vintage bear no resemblance to the many stunning and energetic wines in 2022. Aside from better equipment, and more advanced vineyard management, the change in vinification has been vital, and for Antoine his biggest change has been his work with the lees.

Given his father’s approach, Antoine was never going to become Monsieur Bâtonnage, but he has learnt to work with the fine lees in his wines to bring a punctuation and delineation to them that even in lower acid vintages creates freshness and energy and, in the case of 2022, a lovely mineral, mouthwatering saltiness.

Generally, Antoine’s wines remain a real reference point for fine white Burgundy, and now that he has almost as much Pinot as Chardonnay in the cellar (7 hectares of Chardonnay and 6 of Pinot) following recent acquisitions, watch this space to see him become a fine source of reds, too.