Aligoté gets no respect. While Chardonnay is extolled as giving a wine of elegance, finesse, complexity and length, and has been called the world’s finest white wine grape, Aligoté is often considered inferior: Anthony Hanson MW noted in his influential 1982 work Burgundy (Faber & Faber), ‘…its wine has higher acidity and less length, flavour and roundness than that of the Chardonnay’.
Scroll down to see notes and scores for 26 of the finest Aligoté wines
Despite its comparative lack of finesse, Aligoté is fun, and today a generation of young winemakers is experimenting with Aligoté, with delicious results. It provides a lively, aromatic wine and is often very reasonably priced, in contrast to the more reserved, almost neutral aromas of Chardonnay and its increasingly hefty price-tag.
If there were an Oscar for Best Supporting Grape Variety in Burgundy, it would certainly go to Aligoté.
