Winemaker Notes
The Lignier family owns a 0.4-hectare parcel of Aligoté in Gevrey-Chambertin proper, planted in 1944, and this wine offers a salty, racy profile of blasted chalk and golden fruit. It is a restrained, finely wrought Aligoté that avoids some of the variety’s occasionally coarse notes in favor of a prevailing mineral character. Vinified and aged in stainless steel on its fine lees, this wine was bottled without fining or filtration just prior to the succeeding harvest.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
Bright crimson colour. A fresh red fruit with a little orange zest. There is a firm structure here after the dark red fruit, fair length, this will need time. A solid, middle section, Nuits-St-Georges. Drink from 2029-2034.
Barrel Sample: 90-91
A native but unique white grape to Burgundy, Aligoté is a light bodied white that often ends up unfairly lost in Chardonnay’s shadow. In Côte Chalonnaise, in a quaint village named Bouzeron, just south of the Côte de Beaune, Aligoté has its very own appellation where yields are limited in order to enhance flavors, acidity and overall quality. Somm Secret—Curiously, the famous producer, Domaine Ponsot, bottles a 100% Aligoté from its Premier Cru in Morey-Ste-Denis, Les Monts Luisants, made from Aligoté vines planted in 1911.
The most acclaimed region of Burgundy, the Côte d’Or is defined by a long, limestone escarpment beneath the ground's surface and is home to all of Burgundy’s most famous wines. While Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are produced throughout the Côte d’Or, the north tends to excel at Pinot Noir and the south, at Chardonnay.
The northern half of the Côte d’Or is called the Côte de Nuits. Here reside most of the Pinot noir Grands Crus vineyards of Burgundy—the only one farther south, in Côte de Beaune, is Aloxe-Corton.
The Côte de Beaune is the center all of the Chardonnay Grands Crus with the exception of Le Musingy, found in Chambolle-Musigny in the Côte de Nuits, which produces both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with Grand Cru status.