2023 Domaine Georges Lignier & Fils, Bourgogne Aligoté, White Burgundy, France.
The beautifully crafted, mineral toned and vivid Aligoté from Georges Lignier shows off a bright pale gold color in the glass and is crisply detailed with a racy, flinty and slightly reductive medium bodied palate of lemon/lime, tart white peach and apple fruits, along with hints of almond/hazelnut, verbena, a fennel herbal note and oyster shell. The winery says their Aligoté comes from vines in Morey-Saint-Denis, in the Côte de Nuits, with 70% sourced from a 60-year-old planting in the lieu-dit of Les Aires, and 30% from four tiny plots on clay and limestone soils set nearby. This wine was vinified and aged exclusively in stainless steel and raised on its fine lees for just shy of a year before bottling. This is an excellent and pure example of Aligoté that adds a bit of richer concentration from the old vines, and it is a very good value. The Domaine inmost known for their reds, especially the set of Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-Saint-Denis and Gevrey-Chambertin wines.
I must say it was a pleasure, back in 2015, meeting winemaker Benoit Stehly of Domaine Georges Ligner & Fils in San Francisco, and getting a chance to taste through the Domaine’s wines, I’m grateful to importer Rosenthal for that experience, all the wines that were on show were exceptional and stylish, making it fun to 10 years later to try a new wine from Lignier. Rosenthal explains that the domaine is led by Benoit Stehly, (the) nephew of Georges Lignier, who worked at the domaine for a decade alongside his uncle, before assuming control of the work in both the vineyard(s) and the cellar in 2008. I have admired the Georges Lignier & Fils wines and house style, which is all about transparency and subtly, they remain a somewhat under the radar Burgundy producer that have kept prices very fair into their recent releases. The two big prizes in the collection here, are the Grand Cru plots, with the estate being the largest proprietor of the Grand Cru Clos Saint-Denis, at 1.49 hectares, and also controls over a hectare of the Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, which are huge favorites of mine.
($27 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive