Verget 2025
There are winemakers who charm you, and there are winemakers who tell you exactly what's wrong with your palate, your region, and half the famous names in the Côte d'Or, then pour you something that proves their point. Jean-Marie Guffens is firmly the second kind. A Belgian who landed in the Mâconnais in the 1970s with his wife Maine Heynen, he built Domaine Guffens-Heynen from a few scraps of Vergisson hillside into one of the most sought-after white wine producers in France. Then in 1990 he started Verget, a négociant house built on a simple, stubborn idea: buy grapes from the best growers he could find, farm them his way through the harvest. That means picking early for freshness, sorting mercilessly, and giving nothing a free pass on reputation alone.
That's what makes Verget one of the great insider buys in white Burgundy. Guffens pays for his fruit by the vineyard, not the label, so a Mâcon or Saint-Véran here often has more tension and more to say than a village Meursault from a bigger name. The house style runs through every bottling: bright, cut-glass acidity, real mineral grip, and just enough richness to remind you this is Chardonnay made by someone who has spent fifty years obsessing over it.
I did run into Mouisseur Guffeyns at a restaurant in Solutre-Pouilly a few years back as he saw me sitting by myself drinking one of his wines. We talked for a few minutes and he did invite me to the Domaine - I unfortunately did not have time after lunch that day, but will definitely make it a point to visit. One of the true characters in the wine business making world class wines.
I rarely have have his wines to offer - do yourself a favor and grab some while you can, you will be glad you did!
Aromas of citrus oil, fresh bread and pear preface the 2025 Mâcon-Pierreclos Lieu Sécret, a medium- to full-bodied wine that is layered and fleshy, concluding with a chalky finish. Its fruit was somewhat suppressed by lees following a recent racking, but the wine’s potential is already evident.
- Wine Advocate/Kristaps Karklins, 90-92
The 2025 Mâcon-Vergisson Sur La Roche, as is customary, derives from vines situated on the upper reaches of Vergisson, and blossoms in the glass with notes of peach, pear and freshly baked bread, followed by a medium- to full-bodied palate that is fleshy and layered, underpinned by a deep core of fruit and commendable tension. It is well worth seeking out.
- Wine Advocate/Kristaps Karklins, 90-92
Notes of pear, orange oil and nectarine preface the 2025 Saint-Véran Vieilles Vignes de Saint-Claude, a medium- to full-bodied wine that is concentrated yet racy, with ample chalky structuring extract imparting a sense of freshness.
- Wine Advocate/Kristaps Karklins, 90-92
The 2025 Pouilly-Fuissé Grands Terroirs Oubliés has turned out very well, bursting from the glass with aromas of nashi pear, freshly baked bread and white flowers, followed by a medium- to full-bodied, racy and delicately chalky palate, concluding with a saline finish.
- Wine Advocate/Kristaps Karklins, 91-93
The 2025 Pouilly-Fuissé Les Combes Vieilles Vignes is a great success and stands as the finest wine in the portfolio this year. Derived from very old vines, with some dating back to 1917 and tending to yield small berries, it is, as usual, harvested over multiple passes, with only the ripest fruit selected in pursuit of concentration and flavor; differences in exposition can necessitate harvest intervals of as much as 10 days. The wine leaps from the glass with aromas of nashi pear, peach, spice and struck flint, introducing a medium- to full-bodied palate that is at once rich, layered and incisive, concluding with a long, persistent finish. Made very much in the mold of Domaine Guffens-Heynen, it is built for the cellar.
- Wine Advocate/ Kristaps Karklins, 93-94
