Jean-Marie Guffens needs little introduction to our customers. The maverick Belgian vigneron has produced outstanding, great value wines for decades through his Domaine Guffens-Heynen and négociant Maison Verget. These wines are now almost exclusively from the Maconnais, from old vines and great sites overlooked by those with tunnel vision for the Côte d’Or. Please see our in-depth profile on Jean-Marie from the definitive vertical of his wines, hosted by Farr Vintners.
Jean-Marie Guffens left Flanders in 1976 with his wife Maine and headed to Burgundy. Following studies in viticulture and winemaking, they bought a few plots in the Maconnais to make a wine of their own. These vines from Pierreclos are the foundation of Domaine Guffens-Heynen, with Jean-Marie slowly purchasing further plots across the region that champion less lauded vineyards that lie south of the Cote de Beaune.
It’s not often that you sit down ahead of a night focused on drinking old white Burgundy excited, rather than apprehensive, about opening the wines. It’s even rarer that you come away with a broad smile on your face, with the wines having exceeded all expectation in quality and consistency. Premox – premature oxidation – still plagues white Burgundy to the extent that opening 10 wines from almost any producer from the early 1990s through to the mid-2000s would result in a number of bottles best for making sauces or pouring down the drain. However, on this night, all 10 were in perfect condition without a hint of this fault across the board. What’s more, these wines are some of the best-value offerings in Burgundy, with the prices of many wines from the region now out of reach or overpriced for many buyers.
Ever since I first visited Jean-Marie Guffens and Jean Rijckaert, over 20 years ago, I have been a huge fans of Verget’s wines. Farr Vintners has imported every vintage that they have made since 1992 and we are now one of the world’s biggest buyers of these great value, high quality White Burgundies. From their base in the rolling hills of Macon, Verget sources grapes from small independent growers from all over the Burgundy region which are harvested by their own team of pickers at optimum ripeness and then vinified in their state of the art winery in Sologny. Here they have a range of stainless steel tanks, concrete vats, foudres and oak barrels of varying sizes and ages. Jean-Marie Guffens and Julien Desplans make wine like a great chef prepares food, using the winery to full effect as they tweak the “elevage” to suit the character of each individual wine. No two wines are made to exactly the same recipe but all share in common the Verget house style of ripeness, acidity and minerality in perfect balance. Verget’s wines are always bright and vibrant with subtle use of oak and their richness is always balanced by structure and acidity.
As most Farr Vintners customers will know, we have been importing and championing the White Burgundies of Jean-Marie Guffens and his negociant house Verget for many years. In fact, it was over 20 years ago now that I first visited his winery in the sleepy village of Sologny and met this eccentric, slightly bonkers - but undoubtedly genius - winemaker. His wines had been brought to our attention initially by some rave views for the amazing 1992 vintage and they really were outstanding (and still are - if you can find them). We bought all that we could from this year and have shipped every vintage produced ever since.
