Bourgogne Aligoté "En Buzigny" Vieilles Vignes AOC 2023

A dry white wine of crystalline clarity, grown on old vines in the En Buzigny lieu-dit. Cool fruit, taut acidity, 13.0% ABV — an Aligoté with a depth that surprises.

Domaine Rémi Jobard is based in Meursault and farms nine hectares of vineyard. Synthetic fertilisers and pesticides were abandoned in 1994, herbicides in 1998. The rows are worked by hand, left to grass over and unfertilised; cordon pruning keeps yields low. Rémi Jobard states the goal himself: that the terroir should express itself transparently and unveiled.

Pure Aligoté. The cellar houses two large presses that work at the lowest possible pressure over many hours — grapes picked in the morning are pressed for at least six hours, those harvested in the afternoon often overnight, a full twelve hours. This way, only the finest must, free of bitter compounds, makes it into the barrel. The estate's wines age for roughly fifteen months in 600-litre barrels from cooper Stockinger, of which around a fifth are renewed each year, then rest in tank. Bottled unfiltered, stabilised by two winters of ageing.

Green apple and lemon, alongside white blossom and a mineral edge. The acidity sets the line, the fruit stays cool and precise, the finish dry and saline-clear.

Oysters and fresh seafood, pan-fried zander or poached sole fillet. Also smoked trout and medium-aged Comté, where the acidity and cool fruit cut through fat and smoke. The wine also pairs well with asparagus with hollandaise sauce.

Old vines in En Buzigny, aged in large Stockinger barrels rather than small barriques, bottled unfiltered: a wine that speaks of terroir rather than wood.