Hi all, I’m hoping some of you (or many of you) have done a deep dive on Aligoté before and have some info and/or resources to share.
I made some Aligoté in '25 from Siletto Vineyard and plan to continue in '26. I really want to get my facts straight and just nerd out a bit. I have 6 or 7 books (ex: World Atlas of Wine, Wine Bible, Jancis Robinson’s Wine Grapes, a couple ampelography books, etc.) but there isn’t extensive information on the clones, genetic history, or historical context of Aligoté. Some of the books skip the variety altogether.
Here’s what I do know:
the grape is known for retaining acidity
it’s the child of Gouais Blanc & Pinot Noir (like Chardonnay, Melon, Gamay, etc.),
it’s pretty widely planted now in Eastern Europe.
I also understand a bit about its historical plantings in Burgundy, the move toward majority Chardonnay plantings, Aligoté not being considered a serious grape, and Pataille bringing back the idea of single vineyard bottlings of Aligoté more recently.
What else do you have? Whether it’s articles, book recs, or just written knowledge, I’d love to absorb it! Thank you!
Erin Scala did an episode on Levi Dalton’s podcast about aligote that was pretty good. Check that out. I don’t remember how much it went into clones or genetic history, but there was a good bit of historical context iirc and she talked with a lot of aligote growers in Burgundy.
I’m personally more able to speak on the Eastern European part:
The Soviet Union was obsessed with sparkling wine production and went to great lengths to plant what they called “Champagne varieties,” which included aligote, wherever they could within the empire. By far the most money you could make from government buyers if you had a vineyard was from growing pinot noir, chardonnay, or aligote - even in Georgia, which had much better protection of its indigenous varieties through the Soviet era, a ton of pinot noir would make you nearly double what a ton of saperavi or rkatsiteli would. A lot of Soviet still wine was made from those Georgian varieties, but many of those grapes are late ripening and get too alcoholic for sparkling wine production, hence the “Champagne varieties.”
As for when and why aligote got looped in with the other two, I’m not completely sure yet - it’s something I’m researching - but my guess is that it’s because of slightly better cold resistance and consequently yield, which was a priority for Soviet officials (making sparkling wine as available as possible as a demonstration of the power of Communist economic planning and the superiority of the Soviet character etc.) Russians also prefer sweet sparkling wines much more than Western countries do, so any excessively high acid from aligote base wines was less of a problem because it was going to get buried in sugar anyway.
Aligote shows up the most in the countries whose existing wine industries got most gutted by the state to be replaced with sparkling wine production: Moldova especially, but also Ukraine and Bulgaria, the latter of which has kind of adopted aligote as its own even as it’s worked on bringing back more of its indigenous varieties.
I’m working on a writing project related to Soviet sparkling wine, so hopefully I’ll have more to share on aligote as that progresses!
I’ve found that Aligoté seems to have benefited quite a bit from the rising temperatures in Burgundy. It used to make quite shrill wines with tons of piercing acidity and very little fruit to balance that out. However, many Aligotés today show good sense of balance with more fruit, yet Aligoté still retains high levels of acidity, so it is very seldom you can get a flabby Aligoté. It also seems that the variety doesn’t accumulate much sugar, so the wines don’t get particularly alcoholic even in warmer vintages. However, I’ve noticed that in sufficiently warm (=hot) vintages, the wines tend to get a bit too soft, round and sweetly-fruited for my preference.
As for the clones, all I know there are just those two main clones: Aligoté Vert (typically considered a variety producing lighter, less fruity and more acid-driven wines) and Aligoté Doré (typically considered a variety producing bigger, more concentrated wines).
While you can find Aligoté Doré everywhere, I think a relatively high percentage of it has been planted in Bouzeron, the only Aligoté-exclusive appellation in Burgundy.
When it comes to the range of quality Aligoté can make, Ponsot’s Clos des Monts Luisants - their monopole of centenarian wines and the only white 1er Cru in Burgundy that allows for Aligoté instead of Chardonnay. When they’re young, they just feel like Aligoté that has seen some wood, but with age, these lose their obvious Aligoté quality and just become beautiful, classically styled white Burgundies.
I think he’s talking about how to make a lean, shrill wine of yesteryear palatable by rounding it out with a sweet liqueur, when this discussion is aimed at achieving the level of highly impressive modern benchmarks.
Righty, I was wondering if he meant AOC Cassis or blackcurrants. Didn’t even think of the liqueur - that is crème de cassis, and to me, the term “cassis” in itself is just a synonym for blackcurrant.
Plus if I like shrill, acid-driven wines, why would I want to round out the acidity? That’s exactly the opposite of what I normally want in my wines!
I cracked open one of my old wine books, the 1967 printing of Alexis Lichine’s Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits. Under Aligote it says “Burgundian white grape which gives pleasant but unexceptional wines; these are at their best when young, as they tend to oxidize within three years.” Some regional entries, like Chablis, note how they used to have Aligote and Sacy, but those had all been ripped out. Some references of Aligote and other white Burgs being around 9.5% ABV. Plus some note of it being widely planted in Rumania (their spelling) and Russia. I’ll look for interesting tidbits in other books.
My interest in the grape comes from compelling examples I’ve had. That’s because a bunch of excellent winemakers saw this grape as worthy of exploring and have achieved excellence. With global warming, this is one of the varieties to be looking to. With modern viticultural knowledge, historic problematic issues can be addressed. Others have already done the work, there is some buzz on the consumer side, and a decent number of producers in Burgundy, Oregon and California making it. There’s use in sparkling wine - mentioned above is for the Russian market, but it’s also allowed in (at least some?) Cremant de Bourgogne and I saw an Oregon producer making a sparkling. In sparkling and still, it’s obviously a useful blending grape.
Sorry , yeah I was just referring to Kir as a classic application for Aligoté; doubtless as a counter to the leaner or acidic versions. My comment was sort of in response to ‘who needs fruit’ (when you can add cassis) . Sorry if people think it’s off topic.
Can Aligote make great wine? William Kelley’s ratings have topped out the grape at 94 points… for an Aligote from Domaine d’Auvenay… available stateside for barely $4K per bottle.
Anybody else? There are a bunch of Bouzerons with 90+ point ratings. I have a case of Bouzeron coming in from a producer I imported for 35 years… Domaine Jacqueson in Rully. Based on 40 years of drinking this wine, it may well be great wine.
I really liked the vintage of Domaine de Villaine I had a few years back. Maybe 94-95 for me. I peeked at CT to see which Oregon producers are making it. Walter Scott caught my eye, since I feel the grape does well with a little reduction. A little sleuthing got me an opinion from a big CA Aligote fan who grows and makes it that the Walter Scott version is the best West Coast Aligote being made. So, I now need to strong arm somebody to taste it. I tagged Marcus Goodfellow in this thread, since I suspect he has some good insight on the grape and I’m sure he’d make a great one well suited to my palate.
