2021 Guilhem & J-Hugues Goisot Aligote Bourgogne, Burgundy

Picked in early October. The Aligoté has been made in tank and just racked for bottling after harvest. There are still some lees in suspension, so not clear yet. Pungent though, with evident weight even in this lighter vintage. Quite perfumed, a touch of melon, an interesting grain to the texture, lifted lemons to finish. Remarkably long.

87-88 points Jasper Morris MW Inside Burgundy

Biodynamic. Goisot’s old-vine Aligoté is drawn from parcels of mature vines planted on the high, cool slopes of Saint-Bris. Aligoté is notorious for requiring old vines and suitable soils to produce wines of high quality and Goisot’s holdings nail the brief. The core vineyard is a parcel of 90-year-old Aligoté Dore planted on the high slopes of an old Chardonnay terroir northwest of Saint-Bris. This soil, known as barrémien, is made up of ancient, dense clay littered with blue-grey fossilised oyster shells, several inches long. Then there is a grouping of 45-year-old vines in the lieux-dits of Croix Rougeot, Côte de Coutance and Côte de la Canne, near the Exogyra Virgula vineyard.
 
Goisot’s biodynamic management and commitment to harvesting ripe, yellow fruit results in a far more textured and pulpy wine than you might typically associate with this variety. That said, the cooler 2021 harvest has delivered a wine of vitality and tension, perhaps the raciest release since 2014. This wine is always fermented with native yeasts and raised entirely in tank.