Verget

Before being able to spend significant time in the Mâconnais, Jean-Marie of Guffens-Heynen was a believer, like many others, that great Chardonnay comes from the more serious appellations. He didn't have enough money to acquire vineyards at the time, so he started buying fruit and created Verget in 1990. Verget follows the same ideals as the Domaine wines – "the best wine is made using the best grapes" – and they have always only bought grapes in a very meticulous manner. Since 2006, Julien Desplans joined Jean-Marie and oversees all of the vineyards and purchases, while Jean-Marie is still supporting with the vinification. By its original approach, Verget is a laboratory of terroirs and a creator of climates that reveals all the aspects, all the nuances, and the subtleties of the same appellation. The relationships with the growers are most important, as Verget determines the vineyard management and is often doing the picking.

As with the Domaine wines, the press is a crucial part of the Verget process. Each plot is pressed and vinified separately. During pressing, the person in charge is carefully watching and tasting along the way. The wines are aged on the lees and stirred depending on each cuvée and vintage. Aging is in cement tanks, stainless vats, or barrels and often the final product is a combination. There are unique cement tanks that have an egg shape and are horizontal rather than vertical which allows for natural circulation of the lees.

Julien Desplans' Notes on the 2025 Vintage:

"In the Mâconnais region, the 2025 vintage offered us many excesses: abundant rains, an episode of hail and two heat waves of rare intensity. The rainy winter of 2024/2025 replenished water reserves, which proved essential for the rest of the season. A mild, dry spring encouraged early budbreak. Cooler weather and rain then persisted until mid-June, complicating flowering and reducing the harvest potential. In early June, hail severely damaged some of our flagship plots. Fortunately, the sun returned, accompanied by the first heatwave at the end of June, which helped to cleanse the vineyards. A more temperate July offered the vines a respite before August brought one of the longest heatwaves ever recorded. Ripening accelerated, and the berries remained small, concentrating sugar and acidity. We began the harvest on August 23rd to preserve the acidity of the sunniest grapes. They ended on September 11 after an alternation of dry and rainy days, which shaped very varied aromatic profiles with a taste quality that was always there.