Burgundy

Often referred to as ‘the mad Belgian’ and ‘the extraordinary artist-winegrower’, Jean-Marie Guffens with his rogueish attitude, is the legendary winemaker from the Mâconnais who receives many critical praises for producing ‘poor man’s white Burgundy’, worthy of the finest wines of the Côte d´Or.

The adventure started in 1976 when Jean-Marie Guffens and his wife Maine Heynen arrived in Burgundy from their native Flemish homeland in Belgium. After learning French, Jean-Marie undertook a viticultural course at the local Davayé school.

Maine began to work for wine growers in the Mâconnais and later the couple became régisseurs (managers) of a small estate where they learned to farm vineyards and to make wine. 

Shortly after, in 1979, Jean-Marie and Maine purchased their first few plots of vines that no one wanted on the steep hills of Pierreclos, a small village west of Mâcon. The first vintage Domaine Guffens-Heynen was released in 1980. The couple’s wines started to get huge recognition, especially in the US, but due to the small-scale production of their estate, they were crying out for expansion.

In 1990 Jean-Marie Guffens ventured north where he started a very progressive micro-négociant business, Maison Verget. Verget buys its grapes from passionate winegrowers, selected for their seriousness and their work that respects the vines and the terroir.They have become, over time, valuable partners and Verget determines with them the management of the vines and their yield. The maturation of the grapes is monitored regularly and the dates of the harvest are determined based on rigorous analysis.

Since 2006 and the arrival of Julien Desplans, a brilliant oenologist, who worked at Château Palmer and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Guffens shares his know-how, giving him the responsibility of the grape supplies and winemaking within the Maison Verget.

Domaine Guffens-Heynen covers 5.3 hectares to include the villages of Pierreclos, Davayé and Vergisson. It produces separate cuvées of Pouilly-Fuissé, Mâcon-Pierreclos, Mâcon Vergisson, and St-Véran. The yields are very low and there is a rigorous selection of the grapes in the vineyard and in the cellar before vinification. Nothing is left to chance. Jean-Marie has captured the potential of his variety of terroirs and the ‘haute-couture’ wines that he crafts are essentially masterpieces year after year, and Domaine Guffens-Heynen is now recognised as the ‘diamond of the Mâconnais’.

The Guffens’ signature imprint is always clearly present in all the wines from Maison Verget: a clear acidity, with a mineral character, coupled with ripe fruit. They unite tension, depth, texture, and amplitude, and these treasures are powerful, but never corpulent. There is no doubt that Jean-Marie Guffens, now in his sixties, shapes some of the greatest whites of Burgundy.


Profile © Françoise and Seán Gilley

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