Aligoté

I am writing this on an airplane on my way to Burgundy, the crossroads of France known for its great Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines. But did you know that Burgundy has a lighter side? This is a little known variety that folklore says was proclaimed into obscurity by a King because he just happened to like Chardonnay better. This is something that we still see today, only it is the movies or wine writers that are taking the center stage and making certain grape varieties more popular than others. The variety I am referring to is Aligoté, the “other” white wine of Burgundy. The birthplace of Aligoté is Burgundy, with the earliest records referring to one of its synonyms, Plant de Trois beginning in 1780. Trois is the French word for three, and it references the three clusters that the plant bears on each of its fruiting canes. Long considered a lesser variety in Burgundy, a document in 1807 actually proposed pulling the variety out rather than planting it. Its parentage has been confirmed by DNA fingerprinting as a natural