As Guffens points out, if this were a Cote de Beaune white, it would be Puligny Les Folatieres or Les Combettes. Something about the eastern exposure and particular layering of chalk and clay represented by Verget’s 2006 Pouilly-Fuisse Terroir de Fuisse Les Asnieres permitted exquisite balance for the vintage as well as for exuberant lemon and grapefruit citricity and an intriguing mineral dimension. This doesn’t lack for textural richness, but it never turns broad or fat. The finish here offers a real interchange of mineral and fruit characteristics such as is rare in the Macon in 2006, and if there were also one Verget Pouilly Fuisse from this year that might be worth cellaring for more than three years, it is surely this one. All of this year’s will be best drunk within 2-3 years. In the Macon, at least, Jean-Marie Guffen is convinced that in 2006 “you had the choice between picking too early or picking too late. I chose the former. The sugar levels were high in either case, the acidity was low, and grapes were beginning to rot.” Guffens ran his picking crew ragged between the Macon, Cote d’Or, and Chablis, with more felicitous results in the two last-named sectors. (For notes on the 2006 Chablis at Verget, please consult my report in issue 179.) In the Cote d’Or, Guffens was more successful this year than in 2005, a vintage he thinks is in general over-rated and unlikely to stand the test of time. He was sparing with batonnage in 2006, and as always highly selective in pressing and in retention of lees (meaning he had fewer to work with).A Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93