Particularly noteworthy at the recent wine group dinner was a flight of three Meursault Poruzots from F. Jobard. Only the 1989 was really ready to drink, the 1992 still with a touch of hardness on the finish and the 2001 really quite backward and unfashionably demanding time. A really impressive group of wines all sharing a certain masculinity: challenging rather than charming.

We discussed white Burgundy producers generally - it is hard these days (outside Chablis, if you count that as in Burgundy) to find reliable ones other than one or two of the stratospherically priced ones. Jobard is one of very few examples of reliable excellence at a more or less plausible price.

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