1997 Chassagne-Montrachet

In recent years, Jean Marie Guffens has occasionally found his sources of Cote d'Or chardonnay cut off by suppliers. More than one vineyard owner has been abashed to read rave reviews for Guffens' wines while his own bottlings from the same raw materials have been ignored by critics. Today, there a new wrinkle in the relationship between grower and negociant A number of Guffens' suppliers, it seems, are happy to have their names publicized as the source of a Verget wine. They have used this new notoriety to hike prices for their grapes or to domaine bottle more wine than in the past, in some instances commercializing their wine for the first time. So, once again, Guffens must find new sources of fruit. Not surprisingly, Guffens has scorn for growers who, with no track record for making good wine, suddenly imagine that they can command top prices for their own bottles. His modest analogy: "That would be like saying 'He used to sell paint to Picasso; now he makes his own paintings.'" x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D Not surprisingly, the Verget '97s were among the standouts of the vintage; at the time of my visit, Guffens planned to bottle them before the '98 harvest, or, at the latest, just after. Among the extraordinary collection of Verget '96s are a couple of remarkable examples of Chablis, which some purists may well find too rich for their blood. As I mentioned last year, Guffens says that simply because so much of what people accept as typical Chablis is nasty, machine harvested, cold stabilized, over sulfured, under fruited, stripped, skinny wine. "My wines are Chablis," Guffens insists. "Nothing I do compromises their terroir character." Guffens then cited a comment from the renowned Swiss taster Jacques Perrin which perfectly describes the way great wine transcends its category while remaining genetically true to its roots: "A great wine goes away from its cepage like a genius child from its mother." (Fruit of the Vine, New York, NY; also a Peter Vezan Selection; importers include Ideal Wines, Medford, MA; Barrique Wine Company, Chicago, IL; The Wine Company, Minneapolis, MN; North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA; Estate Wines Ltd., San Rafael, CA; also available through Patrick Lesec Selections, imported by The Stacole Company, Boca Raton, FL and Bacchus Importers, Baltimore, MD.)