Pouilly Fuisse Croux et Petits Croux, Domaine Guffens-Heynen 2020

Even in the context of a tasting spanning 30 years of Guffens's career, the 2020 Pouilly-Fuissé Croux et Petits Croux stands out; indeed, the first word I wrote in my notebook was a rather inarticulate "wow!" Wafting from the glass with aromas of crisp Anjou pear, orange oil, white flowers and freshly baked bread mingled with reductive hints of iodine and toasted sesame, it's full-bodied, ample and satiny, with a deep and layered core, racy acids and a long, saline finish. While it remains a mere infant, its incredible potential is nonetheless almost impossible to miss.

This wine is overdelivering on its incredible promise from barrel. The nose is so powerful it knocks you back, explosive with ripe, almost tropical fruit matched by pressed flowers, whipped butter and salty preserved lemons. This lipsmacking, saline note is equally evident on the palate, reining back the full-bodied, glossy fruit that races across the palate, completely coating the mouth with its magnitude and power. Most wines with this level of concentration would seem heavy or overbearing, but despite the sheer weight of fruit everything is so beautifully balanced. Steely, persistent acids wash over the fruit, tightening the screws and driving the finish. The oak has already been subsumed by the core but there are subtle notes of spice here and there. The finish is minutes long. A personality-driven and complete wine that speaks clearly of the man that made it. Unique.

The 2020 Pouilly-Fuissé Croux et Petits Croux has turned out every bit as well as I thought it might. Indeed, this profound, searingly intense wine has to be tasted to be believed. Mingling aromas of crisp orchard fruit, confit citrus, mandarin oil, freshly baked bread, iodine, smoke and wet stones, it's full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, with huge reserves of fruit tightly wound in chalky, dry extract and girdled by racy acids. Layered and tensile, it's also the most structured wine in the range; having tasted many vintages of Guffens's Petits Croux over the year, I implore readers to let it at least attain its 10th birthday before opening bottles to let it realize at least some of its extraordinary potential. If curiosity does get the better of you, plan on decanting for several hours. As I wrote last year, Guffens describes this southwest-facing site as "the only complete terroir" in the area, with the perfect proportions of clay and limestone. Some 900 liters were produced of this cuvée which checks in at a pH of 3.12 and 14.3% alcohol.

The 2020 Pouilly-Fuissé Croux et Petits Croux is another monumental wine in the making from the site that, in Guffens's hands, routinely produces one of Burgundy's finest white wines. Wafting from the glass with an incipiently complex bouquet of crisp Anjou pear, citrus oil, wet stones, paraffin wax and toasted sesame, framed by a discreet touch of youthful reduction, it's full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, with incredible concentration and searing levels of dry extract. Structured and tightly wound, it's seamless and complete, concluding with a long, intensely mineral finish. Guffens describes this southwest-facing site as "the only complete terroir" in the area, with the perfect proportions of clay and limestone, and produced some 900 liters of this cuvée on 0.25 hectares. With a pH of 3.12 and 14.3% alcohol, it's built for the ages; and since, even in softer vintages, the Petits Croux takes the better part of two decades to show all its cards, patience is strongly advised!