Pouilly Fuisse Premier Croux, Domaine Guffens-Heynen 2016

Guffens excelled in this challenging vintage, where many of Burgundy's white wines carry the stigmata of frost damage, which frequently results in very uneven maturity levels at harvest, and consequently wines that unite overripe and underripe characteristics. The 2016 Pouilly-Fuissé Premiers jus des Croux unites the best press fractions from the Croux and Petits Croux, offering up inviting aromas of white flowers, toasted nuts, orange oil, pear, freshly baked bread and iodine, followed by a full-bodied, deep and layered palate that's concentrated, racy and resonant, concluding with a long, chalky finish. While it is beginning to open aromatically, it remains an infant.

Just two barrels were made of this highly exclusive, typically creative wine from Jean-Marie Guffens. The grapes herald from two of the best vineyards in Pouilly Fuisse which despite their pedigree will not be awarded Premier Cru status in the new classification as they are not South facing - something odd given that wines from the Maconnais more often suffer from over- rather than underripenss in the warming climate. As a result, Jean-Marie's harvest of "Les Croux" and "Les Petits Croux" will go to make a deliberately sly "Premiers Croux". The grapes, he says, were picked very late. The dense concentration that has resulted is immediately obvious on the nose. Ripe peach, pinapple and lemon curd toy with a matchstick reduction on the nose and layers of sweet spice. The concentration and weight on the palate is as profound as any Guffens wine we have ever tasted. Full bodied, ripe and powerful, the remarkably fresh acidity carries notes of honey, sultana, peach, pineapple, vanilla, toast and clove. Continuously building and fleshing out through the mid palate, the finish is minutes long. Jean-Marie thinks this "a bit Corton in style, but obviously better". That rings true to us, the weight, intensity and yet incredible balance another testament to the man's genius in elevage to suit the grapes he has at his disposal. Absolutely magnificent. Total production 550 bottles.

Several years ago, I asked Jean-Marie Guffens his opinion of the projected new premiers crus for Pouilly-Fuissé. The 2016 Pouilly-Fuissé Premier Croux—a blend of two lieux-dits, Croux and Petits Croux—is his cutting reply. The wine is absolutely striking, unfurling in the glass with a reticent bouquet of pear, paraffin wax, honeycomb and ripe lemon. On the palate, it's full-bodied, immensely concentrated and verging on inscrutably structured, with a quasi-phenolic presence that would dwarf plenty of red Burgundies. Right now, it's all about potential: given the track record of Guffens's wines from these sites, I will be giving bottles a dozen years in the cellar before pulling corks, and I counsel readers to do the same. "It's a bit of a rascal right now," comments Guffens. Drink 2028-2048.

The “Premier Croux” is very promising, with a nose of buttered orchard fruit, melon and citrus, and incredible concentration, depth and length; full-bodied, layered and incisive. When I tasted it in October, a top-note of bruised apple indicated that the wine was in an oxidative phase, but Guffens is confident that it will come around—and opened a majestic bottle of his 1997 Clos des Petits-Croux, a wine he says followed the same evolution in barrel, to prove his point.