2022 Bourgogne Aligoté, Comte Armand
Critics reviews
The 2022 Aligoté has partly been racked to tank and is partly still in its original demi-muids. It is pale in colour, with lively fresh fruit on the nose, fresh and lively at the back, indeed quite trenchant. 13% natural alcohol is balanced by high acidity.
Drink 2025 - 2027
Jasper Morris MW, Inside Burgundy (December 2023)
The 2022 Bourgogne Aligoté was picked two weeks after the main harvest and racked just before the 2023 picking. It has quite a primal bouquet with grapefruit and Conference pear, gaining delineation in the glass. The palate is well-balanced with a lovely sense of "rondeur," slightly lower in acidity than last year but with commendable purity on the finish. Lovely.
“We did not have any frost,” winemaker Paul Zanetti explains at the Pommard estate, where he’s reached his tenth vintage anniversary. “It was quite an easy vintage, warm but not too much. There were no real heat waves, but it was hot in July. It was a record yield at around 37hL/ha, the highest since 2014, and it was the same in 2023, though when we pressed, there was less juice than expected. Nevertheless, we have very good quantity and quality. The fruit was perfectly mature with alcohol, about 13.5% and 14.5% for the Clos des Epeneaux and good total acidity. I did not use whole bunches as we don’t have the space in the winery. We did have some stuck ferments. I put the bunches in a fridge at 12° and 13° Celsius, and the yeasts ‘ate’ the sugar quite easily.”
I tasted the crown jewel of Clos des Epeneaux, the 5.23-hectare monopole, via separate cuvées per vine age and location, always a fascinating exercise highlighting their differences. The blend, put together in front of me by Zanetti, looks very promising, maybe not the greatest ever made (both the 2017 and 2018 tasted from bottle alongside appear to be the pick of recent vintages). It tends to overshadow their handful of other cuvées. In 2022, I would keep an eye out for the very capable Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru.
Drink 2024 - 2030
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (January 2024)
About this WINE
Domaine Comte Armand
Owned by the family of the Comte Armand since 1825, Clos des Epeneaux is among Pommard’s most revered vineyards. Post-phylloxera, it wasn’t replanted until 1930. Further vineyards were acquired in ’94: Auxey-Duresses, Auxey-Duresses Premier Cru, Volnay and Volnay’s Frémiets.
The modern era effectively began with Pascal Marchand, who was succeeded as winemaker by Benjamin Leroux. When Ben left in 2014 to focus on his own business, Paul Zinetti took the reins.
Bourgogne Aligoté
Bourgogne Aligoté is a regional Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) for white wines produced in Burgundy from the Aligoté variety of grape, which dates from 1937.
Aligoté grapes have played a prominent role in white Burgundy production since the 1600s, but are now being phased out in favour of the more popular and profitable Chardonnay grape: in 2007 only 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) of Aligoté were grown compared to the 12,800 hectares (32,000 acres) of Chardonnay. The AOC regulations permit up to 15% Chardonnay to be blended with the Aligoté.
Bourgogne Aligoté is usually regarded as a somewhat more acidic wine, best enjoyed in its youth due to its lighter nature. It is also a primary component in the production of the popular French cocktail kir, by combining the Aligoté wine with the blackcurrant liqueur crème de cassis.
Aligoté has one appellation exclusive to its grape: Bouzeron, in the Côte Chalonnaise region of Burgundy, where 53 hectares are dedicated to this unique Aligoté based wine.
Aligoté
A grape that was first recorded in Burgundy in the 18th century and is still planted almost exclusively there, though there are limited plantings in Bulgaria, Moldavia and even California. It is a moderate-yielding grape that tends to perform best on south-east facing slopes and in warm, dry years.
For your Burgundian vigneron, Aligoté is not nearly as profitable to grow as Chardonnay - consequently it tends to be relegated to lower quality vineyards. In the wrong hands and in the wrong sites it can produce thin, raspingly acidic wines that are remarkably undistinguished. However the best growers produce balanced examples with nutty and citrus hints which are most appealing to drink. The best Aligoté wines traditionally come from Bouzeron in the Côte Chalonnaise. Along with blackcurrant liqueur, it is the key ingredient of Kir.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
This cuvée is made from vines in Pommard, Volnay and 90-year-old vines in Meursault. Large 600-litre demi-muid barrels are the preferred vessel and Aligoté is routinely harvested slightly later when the grapes are “d’Orée”. This gives a beautifully rich, oil-like texture with old-vine concentration, nicely counterbalanced with lively acidity. This is a leading example of this style of Aligoté from Paul.
Drink 2024 - 2029
Berry Bros. & Rudd
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