And Gamay is the black sheep 
?
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Add Jobard to the list. Just tasted now.
I need to look up their vines. Kind of feels DorĂ© but I didnât think there much (any) where they are.
Hi Andrew, whatâs your ranking of the various Aligote you have tried?
Ponsot >>>>>>> Ramonet.
Pataille is a close 3rd. I forget which is a super old doré plot.
Had lovely Clos du Moulin aux Moines and Cruchandeau last year. Clotide Davenne makes a good one. Those are the three that stuck in the last few years.
The Villaine stuff is fine. Better than the rest which are often just bad.
Hors categorie - Coche and Leroy. Mostly because just so rare to find. Insane good.
There was a suggestion in my wine group that we do an Aligoté tasting, hipster vs old school. There was a revolt. The idea was almost less popular than the idea to do Sauvignon blanc.
Guess you need to try the WK aligote
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I would love to. Need to reach out to him in general, but def before I visit Burgundy again.
The Domaine Leroy AligotĂ© (from vines in the commune of Puligny) is matured in tank, whereas the Domaine dâAuvenay AligotĂ© (from a cooler, stonier, sloping site in Auxey) is matured in new barrels. Interesting to see the difference you get from site + Ă©levage with the same viticulture, sorting, pressing etc.
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AligotĂ© is an interesting variety. It is very fruitful, so works best when pruned short (when it was the major white variety of the CĂŽte de Nuits, it was goblet pruned for this reason). As others have noted, there is a wide range of genetics, from fat-berried clones than never go golden, to small-berried selections that go fully golden-pink at maturity, much like Roussanne for example. The skins are quite thick and phenolic, so it can easily be bitter/herbaceous if picked underripe (high yields generally mitigate this). It is almost impossible to pick over-ripe, as it retains acidity remarkably, and alcoholic degrees, even when it is cropped at 15-25 hl/ha and picked late, rarely exceed 12.5%. The pH values will typically be a good 0.10-0.25 lower than Chardonnay in a given vintage, e.g. if your Chardonnay is at 3.20 your AligotĂ© will be at 3.05 in a vintage such a 2022. And it absorbs oak like Chardonnay used to 30 years ago - even though almost everyone puts it in their oldest barrels. This is what old vine massale selection AligotĂ© looks like when itâs ripe:
Aligoté in 2022 by WilliamGFKelley, on Flickr
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Insane good? Iâve had them both in comparative AligotĂ© tastings and neither was in the top 3. Theyâre not bad wines in any way, just remarkably pedestrian. If served blind with a handful of AligotĂ©s, you wouldnât blink an eye before moving on to the next glass.
Although my sample size is small. Maybe just poor luck with both. At those prices Iâm not interested to check out how it is.
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The Domaine Leroy version, as observed above, is matured in tank, so remains pretty discreet for the first decade or two. The dâAuvenay rendition is, for me, the reference for the variety, demonstrating that the highest calling of AligotĂ© (as for Chardonnay) is not to make AligotĂ© (or Chardonnay), but to make white Burgundy. Cocheâs rendition is also pretty understated out the gates (oldest barrels, often under 12% abv), but it does age very well. JF Coche used to bottle magnums of it for GĂ©rard Depardieu back in the '80s, and would sometimes get late night phone calls extolling its virtues with a decade in bottle 
So I do not think either are pedestrian, but definitely neither are likely to âwinâ a blind tasting of young wines (unlike the dâAuvenay version).
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Quickly clicked to buy some! Until I saw the price⊠$1,900! 
I need to modify my earlier post saying people wonât pay for Aligote!
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I donât get this, unless you mean DâAuvenay, which is exceptional in an ultra-baroque style. The Coche is perfectly nice but nothing out of the ordinary, like the Maison Leroy version. Iâve never seen the Domaine Leroy version.
Iâll jump in here. I recently moved to the Willamette Valley (good to see some of the old Houston people in this thread) and work at a winery (www.balsallcreek.com) that grows and produces AligotĂ©. I was also tasked to do a presentation on the grape so I have become an unofficial AligotĂ© collector of information in Oregon.
Before I get to my information I will defer to the esteemed Dr. Meredith on all things biologic as her research is the gold standard.
According to Kym Anderson and Signe Nelgenâs Which Winegrape Varieties are Grown Where?, in 2016 there were 26929 hectares of AligotĂ© grown worldwide making it the 32nd most planted varietal. Moldova (7765), Russia (5843), Romania (5840), Ukraine (4814) and France (1927) were the only countries with more than 300 hectares.
For a complete listing of French producers who are members of the Les Aligoteurs, they can be found here: https://aligoteurs.wordpress.com
I have tried to get an accurate accounting of planting in the US and specifically in Oregon with little luck. There isnât a resource tracking plantings of varietals of under 100 combined acres. I discussions with other Oregon producers, our best estimate would be somewhere between 20 to 30 acres were harvested in 2023 with some new vineyards on line in 2024 and coming in subsequent years. California has small vineyards in at least eleven AVAâs Washington has a few mostly in the Yakima Valley Snipes Mountain area and New York has a lone producer in the Finger Lakes.
In Oregon, I found 20 producers with an Aligoté produced from the 2021 vintage or later. On Berserker Day, I discovered that Suzor Wines will be releasing their first next month and of course made that one of my purchases. I got a message earlier today from Ken Pahlow that X Novo vineyard has .39 acres planted with 1.6 acres coming on line from Witness Tree and just over and acre at Bracken. At Balsall Creek, we have two blocks of .26 and .43 acres totaling 1063 vines. Here is my list of current producers that I will add Suzor to upon release.
If anyone has information they want to share (or correct), please reach out. There has been a discussion of possibly requesting to start an Oregon chapter of Les Aligoteurs (with permission of course - we want to use their cool alligator logo).
If anyone wants to buy a few bottles of ours, let me know.
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The absolute best AligotĂ©s Iâve had have been from Roulot, CassiopĂ©e, PYCM, Chantereves and Skyaasen.
Honorable mentions to Petit-Roy, De Moor, Agnes Paquet and La Pierre Ronde as well for some easier-to-find and lower prices options.
Aligoté has truly become a serious grape in Burgundy and many of the new school producers are taking the grape to new heights!
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The amazing @Dan_Kravitz sent me a bottle of 2022 Domaine Michel Goubard & Fils Bourgogne-Aligoté Vieilles Vignes in response to this thread. It utterly knocked my socks off. Def Top 5 in Aligoté for me.
- 2022 Domaine Michel Goubard & Fils Bourgogne-Aligoté Vieilles Vignes - France, Burgundy, Bourgogne-Aligoté (3/2/2025)
Really gorgeous and expressive Aligoté. Light up front with a nice acidic bead and yuzu-esque fruit. But really exploded with a super long and super saline finish with an umami bite. Intense.
Posted from CellarTracker
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Andante has 1 acre. It is very good.
I got a chance to try the 2023 Walter Scott Aligote X-Novo on Saturday at the pick-up party. I thought it was superb. I had ordered 4, but I added a couple more to the order. We then opened one that night, and it confirmed my earlier thoughts. On the reduced side, a lot of citrus, mainly lemons, with a spicy element as well. It was better on Day 2. @Andy_Steinman mentioned that there might be as many as three Walter Scott Aligotes in a few yearsâŠ
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I got lucky enough to work with Jacques Lardiére in 2013 when I was making the wines for Trisaetum and he was starting the first Resonance vintage. I mined him so so much information. I remember briefly talking about Aligoté, and he casually said it is planted in so many of the Chardonnay vineyards of Burgundy. 5% does the trick he said. I get it, that undeniable acidity for the assist!
Terah Wine Company makes a delicious aligote from San Benito county for $35. I struggle to remember my exact notes on it but do recall that I wanted to have another bottle.