It's always hard to choose between this bottling and La Roche, and as usual, the 2023 Pouilly-Fuissé Les Combes Vieilles Vignes is a touch richer and broader out of the gates. Picked in three separate harvests (collecting only the ripest grapes on each passage), the Verget team pulled out all the stops to craft a medium to full-bodied, layered and satiny wine that's seamless and complete, evoking aromas of pear, honeycomb, white flowers and toasted nuts. 2025 - 2040
This may not be Premier Cru, but it is often Verget's top wine - albeit not quite as thick and viscous as Sur la Roche. The vines face both North (30%) and South (70%) and Verget picked the grapes in three separate "tris" - as at Domaine Guffens. This leads to grapes of different ripeness and acidity levels. These are fermented separately and then blended together for oak ageing in barrel - of which 25% is new. A knockout success in 2023, the nose here is immediately impressive, guarded with freshness and youthful vigour, yet showing seductive, ripe stone fruit, pure and fine wood spice, lemon oil and struck flint. The palate follows in the same vein, with multi-dimensional fruit ranging from zesty citrus through to fleshy orchard fruit. Most impressive is the structure, everything is beautifully contained by deceptively bright acidity and pithy structure. The wood is subsumed by the sheer density of fruit, subtly complementing the flavours and giving more in terms of structure and silkiness than outright spice. Very long and expansive on the finish, this is the star of the vintage chez Verget this year. Very impressive.
