2020 Domaine Guffens-Heynen Mâcon-Pierreclos Juliette et les Vieilles de Chavigne (Pre-arrival)

“A prodigious wine, the 2020 Mâcon-Pierreclos Juliette et les Vieilles de Chavigne is the latest rendition of a cuvée based on juice from a parcel of almost 20-year-old vines named “Juliette” (a former aviator, inter alia, Guffens enumerates his various parcels in lieu-dit Chavigne using the phonetic alphabet). Stunted in the 2003 heatwave, it thus produced immensely concentrated fruit and was blended with juice from old vines in neighboring parcels. Wafting from the glass with aromas of pear, citrus zest, mirabelle plum, mint, almond paste, freshly baked bread and iodine, it’s full-bodied, satiny and seamless, with a deep, multi-dimensional core, racy acids and a long, resonant finish. Given its huge reserves of structure and concentration, it will likely shut down after bottling, much as previous iterations have tended to do, only to reemerge slowly in five or six years’ time. But make no mistake, it is a remarkable bottle of white Burgundy.”