2009 Verget Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir

WINEMAKER: Jean-Marie Guffens
REGION: Burgundy, FR
VARIETAL: Chardonnay
VITICULTURE: Sustainable

Don't sleep on this.

"In his watershed book The New France (Mitchell Beazley, 2002), Andrew Jefford describes the Verget style in the following way: “Don't buy Verget wines looking for the kind of cheese paste, farm straw richness of traditional “funky” white Burgundy; these are white wines made with the kind of ravishing purity, compelling sensual austerity more familiar among the greatest winemakers of the Saar, the Ruwer, or Alsace.” That pretty much sums things up.

For those new to the Verget style, winemaker Jean-Marie Guffens perhaps summed it up best when he told us: “I am Flemish, I love purity.” Guffens believes that lees stirring and reduction are embellishments used in white Burgundy to disguise shortcomings (much as dosage and lees aging are used in Champagne). He, therefore, avoids reduction while also bottling under screwcap. He wants you to taste the fruit in all its purity.

Although, as the French would say, this is a grower who cannot keep his tongue in his pocket, Guffens’ longstanding reputation as the enfant terrible of Burgundy has softened somewhat over the years. We cannot say whether or not this is due to the arrival of the quietly spoken Julian Desplans, now Verget’s chief winemaker of five years. What is clear is that Guffens’ fastidious lieutenant— whose CV includes a stint at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti—has instilled an impressive measure of articulate consistency across the entire Verget portfolio." - Bibendum