Aromas of green apples, mint, white flowers and crisp peach introduce the 2016 Mâcon-Bussières Vignes de Montbrison, a medium to full-bodied, succulent wine with excellent concentration, tangy acids and a long, chalky finish. This was cropped at around 40 hectoliters per hectare, and that shows in its depth and seriousness.
Drink Date
2018 - 2024
Jean-Marie Guffens's Verget label, today superintended by the able Julien Desplans, continues to be a reference point for the Mâconnais. Verget's Sologny winery is a sizable facility, unlike the tiny cellars of Domaine Guffens-Heynen, but artisanal methods have been intelligently scaled to match the requirements of larger-scale production: large horizontal stainless steel tanks, for example, offer the same lees-wine ratio as oak barrels, and the lees can be worked with nitrogen without introducing any oxygen into the vessel. Such inventiveness—and Desplans's evident fastidiousness—explain how Verget can offer such quality on such a scale. The best cuvées very much belong among the Mâconnais's élite, but this portfolio is also rich with terrific values to purchase by the case that would make ideal daily drinkers or by-the-glass pours. Classy but keenly priced white Burgundy isn't easy to come by these days, so we should all be thankful for the Maison Verget. These wines come warmly recommended.
The 2016 Macon Bussieres V V de Montbrison was one of the last vines to be picked, 20% aged in new oak. It has a clean and fresh, quite steely bouquet with subtle white peach scents emerging with aeration yet remaining reserved. The palate is saline on the entry, well balanced and fresh even if it does pull up precariously short on the finish. Drink over the next two or three years. Drink Date 2017 - 2021
The nose is bright fresh the start of the palate has a citrus mix but there is richness in the middle ripe pears depth of flavour. The back palate is crisp bright crunchy apple sweeter on the finish some ripe pink grapefruit. 2017-22