Verget Le Haut de la Roche 2022: Built to Wait

For the first ten minutes, the glass gives you almost nothing. A cool silence, as if the wine is standing with its back to the room. That is the Verget Pouilly-Fuissé Le Haut de la Roche 2022 straight out of the bottle.

I tasted it in 2024 alongside thirteen other Pouilly-Fuissés for my Pouilly-Fuissé guide. It was the most expensive bottle on the table and, at that moment, the least ready to drink. This review is about those two things: what you pay, and when you get it back.

Nothing on the bottle warns you. Green capsule, cream label, Verget in small letters bottom right. Judge it on the shelf and you would expect a wine for tonight.

Tasting Note

Tasting Note

Appearance

Light lemon-gold, with the paleness of a young wine.

Nose

Closed on pouring, and it needs time. Be patient and you find lemon, green apple and wet stone underneath. Then a hint of peach and a whisper of nectarine, more promise than presence.

Palate

Dry and bracingly fresh, with high acidity. The palate is tightly wound: lemon, lime and an edge of ripe peach with nowhere to go yet.

Finish

Medium length, with a chalky echo that lingers after the fruit has gone.

Quality

Too young, but the skeleton is there. The high acidity and mineral character point to cooler, higher ground. Give it two to three years.

A négociant with a grower’s instincts

Maison Verget is a merchant house, not a domaine. Jean-Marie Guffens set it up in 1990 in Sologny, alongside his own estate, Domaine Guffens-Heynen. Verget buys grapes from small growers who work to strict guidelines, then makes the wine itself. Since 2006 the buying and winemaking have been in the hands of oenologist Julien Desplans, who previously worked at Château Palmer and the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

This is not a tiny operation: roughly 200,000 bottles a year. Yet Le Haut de la Roche reads like a single-site wine, and the site is the reason.

The vineyard that missed out on premier cru

Le Haut de la Roche sits high on the hill near the Roche de Vergisson. Guffens reckons it deserves premier cru rank. His Dutch importer Okhuysen describes a south-east-facing vineyard on very stony, limestone-rich soil, “for many, the vineyard that didn’t become a premier cru but should have”. Jamie Goode gives the reason in a single line: not premier cru because of its elevation.

You can taste that altitude. Cooler air ripens the grapes more slowly and holds on to acidity, and it is that acidity that makes the 2022 so hard to approach right now.

The grapes are picked by hand and the wine is raised slowly on its lees, the spent yeast left after fermentation that gives a wine texture. For later vintages Okhuysen lists fermentation and ageing in oak barrels with bâtonnage, the stirring of those lees. Goode notes a quarter new oak for the 2023.

My own note on the 2022 does not mention oak once. In 2024, the acidity did all the talking.

€49 and the neighbours

This is where it pinches. At €48.95 it was the dearest bottle in my line-up, and it gave a medium finish. Domaine des Trois Dames cost €36.95 and delivered a long finish and a wine that was already in its stride.

The Rey at €24.99 held its own against bottles at twice the price. If you want something to drink now, what you mostly pay for here is a waiting period.

A second catch: the 2022 has sold out at Okhuysen. The 2024 is now listed in their web shop at €42.50 (importer’s price, September 2026). I have not tasted it, so I cannot tell you whether it is any more approachable.

Food and cellaring

This wine has no interest in cream or truffle. Taut Pouilly-Fuissé from Vergisson belongs with raw shellfish and ceviche, where the acidity has a job to do. Think oysters, a carpaccio of scallops, or sole with nothing more than lemon and butter.

Serve it at 10 to 12°C, as Okhuysen suggests, and give it air: the nose needs time. The importer puts the drinking window at up to 2033. My advice in 2024 was to wait two to three years, which brings you to 2026 or 2027, so if you still have a bottle, its moment is getting close. I have not retasted it since.

The verdict

The Verget Pouilly-Fuissé Le Haut de la Roche 2022 has the bones but not yet the flesh. Acidity, chalk and citrus are in place; the fruit has yet to arrive. If you own a bottle, leave it until next year at the earliest. If you want a Pouilly-Fuissé for this weekend, the Trois Dames costs less and gives you more.

Producer

Maison Verget (Sologny)

Wine

Pouilly-Fuissé 'Le Haut de la Roche'

Vintage

2022

Region

Pouilly-Fuissé, Burgundy

Grape

Chardonnay

Vineyard

Le Haut de la Roche, Vergisson

Alcohol

12%

Price

€48.95 (2022, sold out); 2024 now €42.50

Importer

Okhuysen

Frequently asked questions

Is the Verget Le Haut de la Roche 2022 ready to drink?

It was not in 2024: a closed nose, taut acidity and little fruit. I gave it two to three years then. If you open one now, decant it generously and do not serve it too cold.

Why is Le Haut de la Roche not a premier cru?

According to Jamie Goode, because of the vineyard’s elevation. Jean-Marie Guffens believes it is of premier cru quality, and Okhuysen calls it the vineyard that should have been promoted.

Where can I buy it in the Netherlands?

From Okhuysen, the importer. The 2022 has sold out there; the 2024 is listed at €42.50 (September 2026).

Sources

• Okhuysen, 2022 product page: okhuysen.nl
• Okhuysen, 2024 product page: okhuysen.nl
• Okhuysen, producer page Maison Verget: okhuysen.nl
• Jamie Goode, “The 2023 releases from Maison Verget” (2025): wineanorak.com
• Gault&Millau, Verget: gaultmillau.com
• Le JSL, “La maison Verget récompensée” (2020): lejsl.com

This bottle was sent as a press sample by Okhuysen for my Pouilly-Fuissé guide. No payment was involved and the verdict is independent.