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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2006 > April > 11 > Entry
Wine Blogging Wednesday #20: Verget du Sud Marsanne
When Jean-Marie Guffens, the driving force behind the excellent Burgundy negociant firm Verget, came to Dayton, Ohio in 2000 for a five-cities-in-five-days marketing tour, he showed up for a tasting at The Winds Wine Cellar a bit disheveled and bleary-eyed from a late wine dinner in Cincinnati the night before. So he stoked up on coffee and quickly hit his irreverent, irascible and iconoclastic verbal stride:. Here’s a sampling:
— On his frequent clashes with French government officials who insist that only certain grape varietals be allowed in wines from certain regions: “It’s only forbidden when you get caught … I always prefer to be wrong my way than right someone else’s way.”
— Comparing the quality of the current vintage with past vintages: “Here’s my definition of a good vintage: It’s in stock and for sale.”
— Upon hearing that the Wine Spectator had declared one of his 1997 white Burgundies one of the best of the vintage: “I went down into the cellars and told some of my assistants, ‘We must be doing something wrong.’ ‘
At the time, Guffens was just getting started with his recently purchased property in the south of France, bottling new wines under Verget du Sud and Chateau des Tourettes labels.
The overwhelming majority of what Verget produces is chardonnay, so he’s an unlikely candidate to provide a wine for Wine Blogging Wednesday #20 with its theme of “Off-the-Beaten-Path Whites.” (I’m posting a day early because … well … because I can.)
But the 2004 Verget du Sud Marsanne ($12.99 Ohio retail) met every criteria — and then some. Marsanne is a Rhone grape gaining in popularity in California and elsewhere in France. Verget’s bottling has a solid core of ripe-citrus fruit and stony minerality, with cleansing acidity to balance. Moreso than other white wines, this Marsanne benefits from serving at cool cellar temperature, at which it shows a rich viscosity; serving it refrigerator-cold mutes its aromas and flavors and throws too much of a spotlight on its bright acids. It’s one incredible bargain at $13.
This month’s wine-blogging Wednesday roundup will be posted on Wine for Newbies, perhaps as early as this weekend. Stop by and see what bloggers from throughout the world snagged from their local shelves, tasted and evaluated for the rest of us in the blogosphere!
Thanks for reading, and cheers!
Mark Fisher
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