Jean-Marie Guffens a great Burgundian

I’m old, I have been around for a while and I have been doing wine reviewing for quite many years now. And to be honest I can’t stand doing extensive tastings of seemingly pointless wines anymore.

I see, experience and taste quite many of wines from the Mâconnais with little sense of purpose, direction or true viticultural quality. Many are adrift in the wild sea of global warming without a rudder or intent.

A visit to Jean Marie Guffens in Mâcon is therefore a blessing and perhaps, even a cure for your taste buds. Take another round in the big wine circus, reviving your tools to club the worst vignerons and just read the palate and align yourself with what wine should be about … terroir, pleasure and hedonistic joy.

I first discovered Guffens’ wines in the mid 1990s … Chablis Grand Cru from 1995 and 1996. I found them very pure and appealing back in the day, already having a sense of style and direction – and first and foremost, a clear expression of terroir.

I have since bumped into the Guffens’ Mâcon wines on many occasions and have always found them stylish and to the point—always with a gorgeous display of terroir.

Though I’ve become quite familiar with Gruffens’ wines, I am not an expert in Mâcon wines. If you want to begin your journey into the Maconnais, Gruffens is a stellar domaine to start with.

The Guffens style and team

“Jean-Marie Guffens asserts a style that many great Burgundy winemakers admire and envy. His estate wines, but also—and this is the winemaker’s greatest achievement—his merchant wines are recognised by connoisseurs as among the greatest Chardonnays in France. From the beginning of this merchant business in 1990, Jean-Marie Guffens has been committed to applying the methods used for his own estate, combining meticulousness, sensitivity, and adaptation. To support him, he was joined in 2006 by Julien Desplans, a brilliant oenologist who earned his stripes at Château Palmer and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. After learning from the “master,” he took full responsibility for Verget in 2016, overseeing purchasing, vinification, and ageing. The 2017s are deep, precise, and vibrant wines. We salute this duo’s desire to maintain a style faithful to their origins, far from the excessive oakiness of the past, or today’s tendency toward under-ripeness. An example to follow. ” RVF – Pierre Vila Palleja.

The Verget brand

Guffens has a particular style that is based on several elements: the terroir, the clone massale, the pressing, the vinification and elevage. All of these elements play together to give a stable and coherent style that holds up year after year despite the different vintages.

Guffens likes to pick as late as possible and is very focused on the vibrancy of the wine. Wine really should make an impression on you – mean something. It has to tell you something. There are far too many well-made but utterly boring wines. Wine has to evoke emotion (preferably positive), capture you and seduce you. Here, we have the link between Guffens and Vin d’émotion.

The Guffens universe of wine consists of the main Guffens-Heynen Mâcon brand, producing wines from vineyards owned by the estate. Then, we have the Verget brand making negociant bottlings of Mâcon wines, Chablis and wines from other regions. Finally, we have Guffens’ white Bordeaux brand (Château Closiot) and Château des Tourettes located near d’Apt in the Luberon area, south east of the Rhone, producing a range of reds and whites under the Tinus label.

A big family with very different wines but always with the Guffens signature … very well made, digestible and typical for the area and terroir.

Enjoyable hours with Guffens

Jean-Marie Guffens is a generous host and a fantastic storyteller. After all, he has more than 40 years in the industry under his belt. It is an absolute treat to experience the wines, the anecdotes and the huge experience that Jean-Marie has gathered over the years.

The tasting started with the two side brands Château Closiot and Château des Tourettes. They set the scene for what is essentially the core brand: Verget. At the end, the Guffens-Heynen wines were introduced at the end of the Verget set, along with some Verget Chablis … because we can.

The complex classifications

Let’s face it, some of the Burgundian classifications are very detailed and complex, and sometimes, there seems to be no limits. Even for the biggest Mâcon geek, some of these are, to be honest, more or less unknown to a person like me—names like Mâcon-Vergisson “Sur la Roche”, the Mâcon-Charnay “Le Clos Saint-Pierre”, the Saint-Véran “Lieu-(Inter)dit” or the Pouilly-Fuissé “Sur la Roche”.

We should strive to learn, understand and know these, but will we ? Will I ? … I rest my case … the Hog is, however, old. I have been around for a while, haven’t I ?

My guide to Guffens wines is therefore simple … find a few favourite base cuvées in the Verget range. They are all good, but some are more minerally structured than others. Then, understand the Guffens-Heynen cuvées and choose your favourites and buy these for cellaring.

The Verget set

Verget is the négoce branch. They are made like the Guffens-Heynen domaine wines. Like other négoce wines, they do not always hit exactly the same very high level as the Guffens-Heynen domaine wines, but they come close. This is not an issue anyhow as they stylistically are close to the Guffens-Heynen top cuvées.

Starting out with the Verget Mâcon Bussière Vigne Montbrison 2023. Rich, very balanced … delicate… with classic Gueffens coolness and style. To say that the wines are controlled would be beside the point. They are made with a very sure hand that eliminates the element of issues and faults. They are effortless and precise, without trying … they just are.

The Guffens expression of the different terroirs is quite unique, where even detailed classifications actually have a point. Other producers in the area struggle to have a clear expression of terroir … sorry to say.

There is a core of stability in the style … 2022, 2023 and even 2024 have some of the same strong elements. There are, of course, vintage variations, but the core quality is maintained throughout the vintages … this is a testament to the strength of the vinification.

The Verget Mâcon Vergisson Sur La Roche 2024 – clearly another expression of the acidity.  Perfumed and delicate with an intense minerality … a delightful fruit … very intense …  it has a very vivid acidity – this is a favourite for me in the Verget base range.

Mâcon Pierreclos Les Secrets 2022 is rich and intense with a slight sweetness of the vintage but also with are clear saline element from the terroir.

Saint-Véran 2023 Lieu (Inter)dit  – South, rich and intense and ripe phenolics. Very fine, very nice acidity … intense … very powerful !

Pouilly Fuisseé 2020 Haute de la Roche has fantastic fruit …. calcaire  …. very intense … nice expression of fennel. This is a truly complex wine – another favourite in the Verget range.

Pouilly Fuisseé Les Combes Vielle Vignes 2020 Very rich … intense …. Very zappy … deep intense deep salinity … very deep …fantastic depth. .. richness.

Guffens-Heynen the top end

Moving up the order, the Guffens-Heynen cuvées have more focus and depth, but in reality, the same base style and expression. This means that the wines are more defined style-wise. This is where is becomes more important to pick and choose your favourites.

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