Bourgogne Aligoté 2023 Sylvain Pataille

Aligoté is one of Burgundy's great misunderstood grapes: an ancient varietal, difficult to tame, which in conventional hands becomes acidic and unresolved, but which on limestone soils and with a vigneron capable of listening to it reveals a precision and minerality that would make Chardonnay envious. Sylvain Pataille is among the few who truly understood it, and has proven it since he founded his domaine in Marsannay in 1999. Not from a family of vignerons, trained in Beaune and returned to the Côte de Nuits with a single conviction: wines must express the terroir, not technique. Pataille's Aligoté comes from a blend of two complementary parcels, Champ Forey on limestone and gravel and Auvonnes on clay and marl, vines over 50 years old worked by horse according to biodynamic principles. Gentle vertical pressing, spontaneous fermentation, aging in used barriques, sulfites only at bottling and in minimal quantities. The result is an Aligoté that doesn't apologize to Chardonnay: citrusy, mineral, fresh, with a creamy finish that comes from 50 years of deep roots in Marsannay's limestone.