We aim to have all wines be vintage specific. In the case the listed vintage is out of stock and you note you would like that particular vintage, we will inform you via email for approval to go ahead.
rp94
Robert Parker/Wine Advocate – “The 2022 Pouilly-Fuissé Les Combes Vieilles Vignes was picked in three "tries"—that's to say, successive passages through the vineyard selecting only the ripest fruit. Revealing aromas of pear, toasted nuts, citrus zest, white flowers, beeswax and nutmeg, it's medium to full-bodied, with a satiny attack that segues into an elegantly fleshy palate built around racy acids and concluding with a long, saline finish.” - William Kelley, The Wine Advocate
About This Wine
Located in Solutré-Pouilly, Les Combes is one of Jean-Marie Guffen’s favourite vineyards, a bias that makes perfect sense when you see the vineyard and taste the wines. The oldest vines were planted in 1915 and face north. Another parcel of vines, a mere 70 years old, faces south. Each parcel is picked and vinified separately before blending. Guffens maintains that the resulting whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Incidentally, the soils here are clay and limestone with a higher proportion of clay than most in this area (bringing power), and it’s therefore one of the few Verget wines to be fermented entirely in oak barrels (only 25% new). Having said that, the wine only spends seven months in cask before settling in tank.
Year in and year out, Les Combes is one of the crown jewels in the Verget stable, and the marvellous 2022 is no different. This year, Guffens picked his low-lying parcel early to maintain acidity and used a smaller proportion of the fruit from the riper, south-facing parcel to further retain structure and freshness. A statement in balanced power, old-vine density and freshness, expect all kinds of fleshy orchard fruit and citrus oil, subtle hints of wood spice flint and smoke and a super-long, driven close. This may need some time to harmonise, but it is clearly a class apart.
| Type | White Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal(s) | Chardonnay |
| Country | France |
| Region | Burgundy |
| Brand | Verget |
| Vintage | 2022 |
Wines from Burgundy
A legendary wine region setting the benchmark for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay worldwide. In the Jurassic time period, the area was part of a vast, tropical sea. Over hundreds of millions of years, the seabed transformed into various layers of limestone, sandstone and clay soils that have entrapped the fossils of ancient sea creatures. These soils are the secret behind the zesty minerality that Burgundy wines are famous for.
Burgundy is probably the most terroir-centric wine region in France. Huge emphasis is placed on the specific vineyard, soil type, elevation, and angle of slope where the wines were made. This is reflected on the wine's labels where appellations are more prominently displayed compared to the producers’ names.
The most prestigious wines of the region come from a long and narrow escarpment called the Côte d'Or split into the Côte de Nuits to the north and the Côte de Beaune to the south. Côte de Nuits produces many of the world’s finest Pinot Noir’s, all but one of Burgundy’s red Grand Crus are made in this area. Whilst interestingly, the opposite is true for the Côte de Beaune where all but one of the Chardonnay Grand Crus are made. From this information it may seem you should be buying a Pinot from the North and Chardonnay from the south, that is only true for the pinnacle of Burgundian wines. Both outstanding reds and whites are produced throughout the Côte d'Or.
In Burgundy, they use a wine quality tier system that goes:
Grand Crus 1.4% of total production
Premier (1er) Crus 10.2% of total production
Appellations Villages 37.3% of total production
Appellations Regionales 51.1% of total production
When one refers to “Burgundy wines” they are usually talking about those produced in and around the Côte d'Or. While the Chardonnay’s from Chablis and the Gamay’s from Beaujolais are formally apart of the Burgundy wine region, those subregions are generally referred to by their own names rather than being considered “Burgundy wines”.
France
Italy
Spain
Australia
New-Zealand
Germany
Austria
Portugal
South-Africa
Greece
USA