Bourgogne Aligoté "En Buzigny" Vieilles Vignes AOC 2024

Here, Aligoté achieves a depth that surprises: densely built, clearly defined, with cool fruit and a calm structure. Toasty notes are sought in vain, the oak recedes behind the grape variety and origin.

The grapes grow on old vines in the En Buzigny site in Burgundy. The domaine, based in Meursault, has worked without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides since 1994, and without herbicides since 1998. The rows are worked by hand and cover-cropped, fertilization is no longer used, and cordon pruning naturally keeps yields low.

100 percent Aligoté from old vines. Pressing takes place over many hours at the lowest possible pressure — up to twelve hours for grapes picked in the afternoon — so that only the finest must reaches the cask, without any bitterness. Aging takes place in a 600-litre cask made by Austrian master cooper Stockinger, built from French, Austrian, and Slavonian oak. The large volume means less wood contact per litre and a slower oxygen exchange. Only about a fifth of the casks are renewed each year. Bottling is done unfiltered.

Lemon and green apple, along with fresh herbs and a cool mineral note. Taut and juicy, carried by invigorating acidity and a fine texture, the minerality remains pronounced without ever becoming sharp. 13.5% ABV, dry.

With oysters, seafood terrine, and river perch with herb butter. Also with poulard breast in morel cream sauce, steamed turbot with herb butter, or a leek and Saint-Maure quiche.

A Bourgogne Aligoté that fully preserves the domaine's cellar work: long pressing, large-format oak, unfiltered bottling. This wine needs time to open up.