For those who don’t know him, it may come as a surprise to hear that Burgundy’s enfant terrible—and the winemaker behind one the greatest domaines in the Mâconnais—now makes wine in Bordeaux, too. In fact, Jean-Marie Guffens first visited Bordeaux in ’76, years before he purchased his first vineyard in Mâcon-Pierreclos. But it wasn’t the region’s more famous red wines that took his fancy; rather, it kindled Guffens’ love affair with great Sauternes and Barsac, particularly Château d’Yquem.Over 40 years later, having established two iconic properties in Burgundy, Guffens was offered the chance to purchase the historic Château Closiot from prominent Belgian wine journalist Bernard Sirot. With Julien Desplans—his right-hand man in Burgundy—effectively running the operation there, we gather Guffens could not pack his suitcase fast enough!Château Closiot covers eight hectares, making it one of the smallest in Barsac (for comparison, Climens has 30 and Coutet 18 hectares). The vines sit on the Clos Bonneau, an exceptional terroir where red earth dotted with pebbles rests on the Barsac plateau’s typical limestone base. Notably, the soils are relatively cool, imbuing Guffens’ wines with mineral steel and freshness to offset the late-picked fruit. Surrounded by Climens, Doisy-Védrines and Coutet, the clos is planted almost exclusively to Sémillon, complemented by Sauvignon Gris, Muscadelle and Sauvignon Blanc. It includes a generous four-hectare parcel of 100-year-old vines.With just a handful of harvests under his belt, Guffens hit the ground running, producing sweet wines of great beauty and “one of greatest dry whites of the Barsac region”, according to La Revue du Vin de France. But what else would you expect from this iconoclastic perfectionist? These are superb, unique Bordeaux wines of extraordinary character, aromatic intensity, concentration and underlying energy, and we recommend them highly.