Long considered the younger sibling of Chardonnay, confined to the role of kir base, Aligoté has for some years been enjoying a form of discreet revenge in Burgundy. The Bourgogne Aligoté AOC Tradition 2023 from the Cave de Charnay-Lès-Mâcon, awarded a silver medal, is part of this movement: that of a grape that ceases to be a mere ingredient and becomes a wine in its own right once again.
The vintage shows a brilliant pale gold colour and develops aromas of peach, fresh fruit and white flowers — an aromatic profile that owes much to the Mâconnais terroir, where Aligoté finds limestone soils conducive to its natural freshness. On the palate, the wine proves supple and fruity, before extending into a lemony finish that is its signature: it is precisely this acidic tension, long judged too sharp to please on its own, that enthusiasts now seek as a guarantee of authenticity and drinkability.
Aligoté shares a common Burgundian origin with Chardonnay, but was long relegated to the least prestigious plots, its reputation tarnished by the image of a stopgap wine rather than a wine of character. The revival the grape has been experiencing for a decade owes much to a new generation of winemakers who vinify it with the same care as their grands crus, revealing a material capable of ageing and gaining complexity — far from the sole role of foil in the kir royal.
This Bourgogne Aligoté Tradition 2023 illustrates this philosophy on its own scale: served between 10 and 12 °C, it naturally finds its place as an aperitif, but equally accompanies fried fish, a jambon persillé (Burgundian parsleyed ham) or Burgundy snails — dishes which, like the wine itself, belong to a regional repertoire that is being rediscovered with pleasure. Lovers of tradition can always serve it as a kir, enhanced with a Burgundy crème de cassis, but the wine is amply sufficient unto itself for those who take the time to listen to it.
At a time when summer calls for freshness and simplicity, this small, long-underestimated grape recalls an obvious truth: in Burgundy, there is no such thing as a minor wine, only
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