Burgundy’s ‘other’ white variety is stepping out into a spotlight of its own, with a momentum brought by a highly committed band of producers enthused by its sprightly charms and perhaps hidden potential
Aligoté gets no respect. While Chardonnay is extolled as giving a wine of elegance, finesse, complexity and length, and has been called the world’s finest white wine grape, Aligoté is often considered inferior: Anthony Hanson MW noted in his influential 1982 work Burgundy (Faber & Faber), ‘...its wine has higher acidity and less length, flavour and roundness than that of the Chardonnay’.
Despite its comparative lack of finesse, Aligoté is fun, and today a generation of young winemakers is experimenting with Aligoté, with delicious results. It provides a lively, aromatic wine and is often very reasonably priced, in contrast to the more reserved, almost neutral aromas of Chardonnay and its increasingly hefty price-tag. If there were an Oscar for Best Supporting Grape Variety in Burgundy, it would certainly go to Aligoté.
ON THE SIDELINES
Aligoté offers advantages to the wine-grower as well. The grapes are large and juicy, and the yields often higher than Chardonnay. The grapes have high natural acidity, which they retain until late in the ripening cycle – with global warming, this is one of its most attractive features. However, yields must be held in check, because if there are too many bunches on the vine, Aligoté can produce flavourless, mildly tart juice with little character. Producing wine that’s less expensive than Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, Aligoté is less profitable and thus often relegated to lesser sites too high on the slope or in the deep soils at its base, where it can make an insipid wine.
The grape was granted the appellation Bourgogne Aligoté in 1937. However, according to Burgundian historian Guillaume Grillon, the first written records of Aligoté date to the 18th century. By the 19th century, it was planted alongside Chardonnay in Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne, and grower Jérôme Galeyrand (see p56; The Wine Society has his Bourgogne Aligoté Poirossot 2020, £30) speculates that it may be allowed back into more village sites and even in grand cru sites in years to come.
Aligoté can produce beautiful, long-lived wines when the grape is given a foothold in a top-quality site. Domaine Ponsot has been a supporter of Aligoté for more than a century, beginning with William Ponsot in 1911, who replanted his Clos des Monts Luisants after phylloxera to the same grape variety – Aligoté – that had existed there before. Ponsot’s vines are unique today since they are classified as premier cru Mor
