The pursuit of freshness is a perennial struggle for white Burgundy vignerons these days. They’ve adapted to warmer, drier summers by delaying pruning, harvesting earlier, and tweaking their cellar work. But Chardonnay loves the sun, and inattentive growers can end up with overripe, high alcohol wines.
The moment has been kind, however, to Chardonnay’s distant understudy Aligoté, a centuries-old Burgundian varietal encompassing about a tenth of the region’s white vines. Its natural high acidity is an advantage in the new climate, and a wave of young vignerons – the self-named Aligoteurs – produce wines that make a real case for the grape’s potential.
Our favorite among these is Vincent Boyer, a masterful author of exquisite whites from Meursault and Puligny. He gives his Aligoté the same extended elevage (nearly two years in old barrels and concrete eggs) as his Chardonnays, and the resulting wine is simply exquisite. Burghound found the just-arrived 2021 “exceptionally fresh” and “very well-detailed” with notes of “lemon rind, green apple, and spice.” He awarded it his “outstanding” designation, and concluded simply, “good stuff.”
Serve this on your front stoop or back patio all spring/summer long.
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Boyer-Martenot Aligoté 2021
bottle price: $29