2018 Verget Cuvée de la Butte Chablis

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

This cracking villages bottling comes from a parcel of vines located close to the 1er Cru Les Butteaux (prompting the cheeky name which literally translates to “wine of the hill”). These vines are situated on a sudden slope with very chalky soil, rich in white clay. As with each of Verget’s Chablis wines, only the free run juices were vinified, in this case, 95% in the domaine’s bespoke horizontal stainless-steel tanks and 5% in barrel. The wine was bottled after seven months on lees.

There’s charming flesh here clipped by that classic spine and oyster jus minerality only found in the best Chablis. The nose is ripe and open with aromas of stone fruit, orange citrus and boxwood, while the cool palate is offset by tangy, grapefruit-like acidity and iodine minerality. There is genuine complexity here, but the overall impression is of crystalline purity and sustained freshness.