The Aligoté Grape

(Synonyms: Aligotte, Alligotay, Alligoté, Alligotet, Beaunié, Beaunois, Carcairone, Chaudenet Gras, Giboulot, Giboudot, Griset Blanc, Mahranauli, Plant de Trois, Plant Gris, Troyen Blanc, Vert Blanc.)

Background

Aligoté is a white-wine grape originating in the valley of the Saône River in France. Today, it is grown almost exclusively in Burgundy, in the Côte d'Or region and southward, and also to some degree in the Chablis region. Because Burgundy’s star grapes, Chardonny and Pinot Noir, are such highly valued grapes, Aligoté (where grown at all) is almost always relegated to the poorest parcels of vineyard land, leading to its often being called “Chardonnay’s poor sister”.

Aligoté has had a tough row to hoe: because the world market is so grossly oriented to Chardonnay as the premiere white wine, Chard goes for high—stupendous when actually from Burgundy—prices. The consequence is that poor Aligoté, which does not have anything like that cachet, is grown in the poorest areas (usually at the top or bottom of a slope), and even there, Aligoté is slowly giving way to Chardonnay. It is widely believed by winemakers that Aligoté, if grown on the soils Chardonnay is, and given the vineyard and winemaking attention Chardonnay commands, could produce wines as good as Chardonnay (better a few whisper). But it is not so, and almost certainly never will be so.

So: is Aligoté just a lost cause? A thin, acidic, bland nothing? No. And that is because there remain a handful of producers who respect the variety and take the trouble to do their best with it. The center of such activity is the village of Bouzeron in the like-named commune in the Saône-et-Loire department of Burgundy; and there is now a French AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée) also named Bouzeron. Wines labelled “Bouzeron” must, by French law, be 100% Aligoté. And one can assume that if a winemaker troubles to produce a Bouzeron, he or she is dedicated to that grape.

Well-made Aligotés, whether Bouzerons or not, tend to be acidic and mineral—“steely” one might say. They also can, and should, exhibit terroir, because Aligoté is quite as capable as Chardonnay at presenting terroir. Aside from acidity and minerality, the typically wines have a slightly herbal quality, and often a light touch of citrus (usually lemon). They are well worth sampling.

Factoid: There are several Aligoté wines that can command over $100 a bottle—one over $500.

Some Descriptions of Aligoté Wines

Wikipedia
“The grape ripens early with moderate yields and produces wines high in acidity that can be drunk young. Its aroma includes elements of apples and lemons. Clive Coates says it is a variety of secondary importance in Burgundy which produces a light, primeur-style wine with slightly herbal flavour and rather higher acidity than the Chardonnay. The village of Bouzeron is considered to represent the region’s finest examples of the variety with the appellation Bouzeron-Aligoté AOC restricting the yields to 45 hl/ha compared to the Bourgogne Aligoté AOC [limit of] 60 hl/ha.”
Wine Searcher
“The variety is at its best in the wines of the regional Bourgogne Aligoté appellation, and particularly in Bouzeron, in the northern Côte Chalonnaise…It is able to produce delicate wines when grown on the chalky soils of Burgundy, but will also thrive in sandier soils, such as those found in the Rhone. Perhaps counter-intuitively, this hardiness and reliability has only served to lower Aligoté's status to ‘useful’ and ‘reliable’ rather than ‘mysterious’ and ‘enigmatic’…Wines produced from Aligoté are generally dry in style, with floral and herbal notes, naturally enhanced by the variety’s high levels of acidity.”
Wine Folly
“Aligoté is Burgundy’s ‘other’ white grape, more rarely encountered than Chardonnay; yielding light, citrusy wines…With lean, minerally flavors and palate-cleansing acidity, Aligoté does wonderfully [with many foods].”
Wine Enthusiast
“Most are inexpensive, simpler white wines made mainly from the more-prolific Aligoté vert clone planted in the less-valued, richer soils of the Saône Valley flatlands. Aligoté fans believe its key attribute is that it expresses the terroir of thinner, rockier, hillside soils. Yet, some prominent family growers loved their hillside Aligotés, especially from old vines, and continued to produce the variety in addition to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. They were enchanted by the wine’s lightly floral aromas, the combination of citrus fruitiness and flinty minerality and, above all, its vivid, mouthwatering acidity. It can also age for several years…The appellation most dedicated to quality Aligoté is Bouzeron, a village on the Côte Chalonnaise just south of Côte de Beaune. Until 1998, when Bouzeron was elevated to village status, its wines were called ‘Aligoté Bouzeron’ on the labels. Today, they are simply known as ‘Bouzeron’.”
VinePair
“[I]f you’re able to get your hands on a bottle of Aligote you’ll discover an excellent, refreshing wine that’s made with the same care as much of the region’s Chardonnay…Aligote is a quaffable gem, dry with floral and herbal notes and an almost lemony character. There is also richness in Aligote wines from Burgundy, but only a bit.”
Eric Asimov, The New York Times
“Few grapes have been as scorned in the last 50 years. Aligoté is often described as thin, acidic and insipid, capable of nothing better than serving as the base for kir, in which white wine is flavored with crème de cassis…[Yet] many of Burgundy’s most revered names…persist in growing aligoté…Why? Because, when the grapes are farmed conscientiously and the wines are made with precision, they can be delicious and distinctive, full of the energy and minerality that are the hallmarks of aligoté.”
Dave McIntyre, The Washington Post
“Aligote has a pale-golden straw color and discreet floral aromas that hint of an acacia tree just out of sight in the next yard. The grape’s acidity gives the wine a lemony character, though because this is Burgundy there is richness as well: Think lemon curd, accented with the toastiness of roasted hazelnuts. I’ve seen this toasty character described as “warm croissant,” which gives the appealing image of wine with breakfast.”
Punch
“In a way, growing aligoté in a place like Burgundy is a moral act—especially when you consider that the game has been stacked against it since 1937, when authorities created the Bourgogne Aligoté appellation. The move acknowledged the grape’s prominence, but also banished its use in nearly every other appellation, effectively ghettoizing it in favor of chardonnay (which, incidentally, shares its parentage with aligoté). Today it can be difficult to sum up what aligoté tastes like—in part because it was, and still is, grown to excessive yields and is rarely a candidate for good farming or superior cultivars…But good aligoté, treated with the same care as the region’s chardonnays, is similarly sensitive to locale. The versions grown near Chablis can be more flinty and stark than the plusher versions found near Meursault. Always, though, it’s more mineral than fruity in its flavors.”

Some Aligotés to Try

Aligotés of reasonable quality with reasonable prices and availability are really hard to find. This is the best we could do.

For a Splurge

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This page was last modified on Sunday, 31 October 2021, at 1:13 am Pacific Time.

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