We’re visiting our growers in Burgundy later this month, which will give us a clearer view of the style and quality of the 2022 vintage. For now, if our tasting of Verget’s wines in Australia last week may act as an early barometer, the omens look very good indeed. Assessing the season on paper, it’s easy to imagine the resulting wines might be dominated by the warm, dry conditions and late August harvest. But Burgundy isn’t written on paper, just as all producers are not created equal. Julien Desplans, Jean-Marie Guffens’ fastidious winemaker—whose CV includes Château Palmer and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti—told us, “The grapes were perfectly healthy, the aromatic maturity very beautiful and the sugar/acidity balance not far from perfection.” In terms of style, Desplans sees 2022 as like a hybrid of 2017 and 2019. Should that be a case of enough said? In a year when ripeness and fruit concentration were never going to be a problem, freshness and vibrancy are key features here, in part because the grapes retained high levels of tartaric acid, as they did in 2020. Then there are the idiosyncratic methods in the cellar, which include the use of higher acid free-run juices, a modified Champagne press, and high solids and reductive lees—all scrupulously managed to capture precision, volume and vibrancy. “Terroir is one thing, but it’s not the only thing” harks Guffens. “In the Mâconnais, we are the creators of free wine.” In short, 2022 is a classic Verget vintage that highlights this producer's ambition to craft wines of purity, layered silky depth, energy and balance. While prices have risen over the years—less than most, we might add—we believe all the wines offer superb value in today’s climate. “For the same price as a bottle of wine from the Côte d’Or you can have six bottles of a good Mâconnais,” quips Jean-Marie Guffens. In this case, you can make that six bottles of great Mâconnais.