Domaine Marc Colin crafts world-renowned Chardonnay from the most prestigious stretch of the Côte de Beaune, emphasizing organic farming and meticulous, traditional winemaking. But Chardonnay isn’t the whole story here: Colin has several old-vine Aligoté parcels alongside its more lucrative Chardonnay holdings throughout Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet and Saint-Aubin.
Why leave prime sites planted to the second-banana Aligoté when Chardonnay would fetch more? Because the wine is too captivating to deny. From first smell, it’s obvious that Colin’s 2012 Bourgogne Aligoté is from a serious terroir, a delicious white Burgundy regardless of varietal. This price is not an anomaly for Aligoté, but it is for what’s in the bottle—a wine of life, complexity, and an authentic sense of place. It’s a truly transcendent wine.
Although it’s actually a distant cousin of Chardonnay, Aligoté has traditionally been pigeonholed as a relatively neutral, quaffable, unimaginative white (the stuff to which cassis is added to make a Kir). In the right spots, however—and in the right hands—it’s capable of so much more. Grown in Burgundy since the 17th century, Aligoté gained appellation status in 1937, but it is most often relegated to less-desirable vineyard locations. As Colin (and others, including Domaine Ramonet) demonstrate, giving over some prime Beaune real estate to Aligoté is hardly a waste; it can, in fact, produce Aligote of real breed, with mineral depth and aromatic complexity to rival Chardonnay at a more affordable price. Ask any master sommelier about Aligoté, and you’re almost guaranteed to hear a tale of a wine that blew his or her mind. Such is the case here.