2023 Domaine de Villaine Aligoté Bouzeron

Notes

Most of us meet Aligoté as the grape in a Kir, the sharp little white Burgundy keeps around for picnics and apéritifs and doesn't think about much otherwise. In Bouzeron it grows up into something else entirely, and this is in no small part due to the involvement of the legendary Aubert de Villaine. Aubert spent his career as co-director of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, bought a neglected farm on these sunny limestone slopes in 1971 and then spent 27 years convincing the authorities that one village deserved its own appellation for this grape alone. They agreed in 1998, and Bouzeron remains the only village in all of Burgundy where Aligoté is the whole story. The vines here are the rare, golden-skinned Aligoté Doré, farmed organically since 1986 (long before it was fashionable), and the wine is raised in large old foudres so nothing gets between you and the fruit. Think tons of white flowers and lemon curd, a chalky, saline snap, and far more texture than one might expect. Aubert's nephew Pierre de Benoist has run the domaine since 2000, and the wines keep getting better. Buy a few. They age, too!