2021 Mâcon-Pierreclos Lieu Secret

My final port-of-call in the region was to see Jean-Marie Guffens. Rumors are swirling that the Belgian enfant terrible is planning to retire after four decades of making wine/creating mayhem. I have to see it to believe it. Having devoted his life to the region closest to his heart, can you simply just put down those secateurs? Together we tasted new releases from barrel or vat before broaching a selection of mature bottles that he sloshed into glasses, half inside and half splashed over the table. As one comes to expect, Guffens offered a lot of unprintable remarks on all manner of subjects. One thing he is not is boring. Guffens is a winemaker with edge and unpredictability, mischief never far away. Guffens explained how it was essential to separate the juice in 2022 and how he transferred the wines into concrete vat in May instead of June since he feels it is a delicate vintage with potential problems for volatility. Yields in 2022 were a healthy 43 or 44hL/ha, whereas, in 2021, they averaged just 14.2hL/ha despite picking parcels three or four times. This is due to the tumultuous season creating multiple generations of grapes. “There were two ways to make bad wine,” Guffens says. “Pick early or pick late.” Ergo, he picked parcels two or three, sometimes four times. Despite his efforts and the herculean work throughout the season (when I met Guffens that May, he was already visibly exhausted), there are only four cuvées in 2021, none of them chaptalized. As such, Guffens plans to release older vintages onto the market to compensate for the shortfall. He denounced 2021 when he said: “I am a creator. I want to make the wine. I hate it when the growing season makes the wine.”

A bit like their creator, there is always something a bit maverick about Jean-Marie Guffens’ wines. What distinguishes them is their unerring ability to mature in bottle and reward those with the nous to cellar them for 15 to 20 years. Regrettably, that’s probably a tiny proportion of people that buy his wines. The 2020s appear to have more potential than the 2021s, while the 2022 Mâcon-Pierreclos Juliette et Les Vielles de Chavigne must rank among the finest examples that I have ever tasted from that appellation. I’d love to serve it blind against some of the more self-aggrandizing Meursaults. Prices remain ridiculous given quality, though values in the secondary market have increased considerably in recent years.