Aligoté is often called Burgundy’s “other” white grape variety, a foil to the region’s prized Chardonnay, one of the world’s most coveted white wines. Aligoté often struggles to maintain its dignity and is usually an afterthought for wine lovers who consider it as a simple quaffer on a hot summer day or to be made into Kir, a French cocktail made with dry white wine and Crème de Cassis liqueur.

Aligoté’s less-than-stellar reputation is, quite frankly, for good reason. Being that Burgundy’s star grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, are so highly valued, Aligoté makes up only about 6% of Burgundy’s vineyard plantings, most of it grown on the Côte Chalonnaise, just south of the famous Côte d’Or. It is mostly found on flatlands, producing copious amounts of simple, young-drinking wine.

The best Aligoté wine usually comes from grapes grown in Bouzeron. Here, the vineyards are planted on slopes with a clonal variety called Aligoté Doré, which gives smaller yields and produces wines with more expressive aromatics. However, Bouzeron is not the only name in the quality game. Notable Aligoté is also popping up in other Chalonnaise appellations, such as Montagny.

Organic producer Philippe Pascal of Domaine du Cellier aux Moines is a relative newcomer to Burgundy. He produced his first Aligoté in 2020, and the wine is quickly making a name for itself. Wine writer and Burgundy aficionado Michael Apstein calls it “the best Bourgogne Aligoté I’ve ever had,” even better, he says, than one from Coche-Dury, a highly regarded Burgundy winery established in the 1920s.

**Philippe Pascal, co-owner with his wife Catherine, of Domaine du Cellier aux Moines.**

“Why is it so stunning?,” ponders Apstein in Terroir Sense Wine Review, “Firstly, this Aligoté, labelled “Sous les Roches,” comes from a vineyard in Montagny planted in 1945. Secondly, the extremely focused and talented team at Domaine du Cellier aux Moines made the wine.”

To Make a Fine Aligoté, History Helps

Domaine du Cellier aux Moines dates back nine centuries when Cistercian monks established a cellar and walled vineyard on the most favorable slope of Givry. For centuries, they supplied the Popes with outstanding red wines that had the fame and price of their northern neighbors in Volnay. When Philippe and Catherine Pascal purchased the estate and its five hectares of Première Cru Pinot Noir vineyards in 2004, it had been abandoned for years. During ten years of hard work, the Pascals restored the unkempt vineyards and updated the dusty old cellar to a modern, four-level gravity-fed winery.

To produce white wines, the winery rents vineyards in other areas of the Côte Chalonnaise, such as Montagny, where they tend one small Aligoté parcel, producing approximately 1,500 bottles of wine in 2020.

**In the Vineyard: Cellier aux Moines winemaker Guillaume Marko with Francois Corneloup.**

“Raymond Corneloup planted the vineyard to celebrate the end of World War II when France was liberated, and the large regiment of Germans in Montagny left,” said Philippe Pascal, owner of Domaine du Cellier aux Moines, at a media dinner in New York City. “The owner, Francois Corneloup (Raymond’s son), is a very skillful grower who, like his father, sold his grapes to the coop before retiring. The 78-year-old vines are high up on a hill, planted under the rocks (sous les roches), and are deeply entrenched in a perfectly-exposed limestone slope. They are very different from the vines of the widely-available Aligoté grown in lower altitudes.”

I would say Pascal’s Aligoté is in a completely different league than those from the valley floor.

“2020 was a very hot and dry growing season in Burgundy,” says Pascal. “The grapes’ sugars began concentrating early, by mid-August. However, the terroir our Aligoté has been planted on makes a major difference in the quality of the grapes. Acidity holds well on this beautiful limestone soil, one of the highest slopes of Montagny, next to the church and cemetery.”

Tasting notes: Domaine Du Cellier Aux Moines Aligoté 2020

Fresh and subtle nose of lemon zest, white flowers (honeysuckle),and herbs (lemongrass and sage) leads into a lively, full-bodied palate of tangy, citrusy fruitiness, with a touch of vanilla oak, and a pleasant flinty bitterness on the finish. Racy acidity and saline minerality balances the creaminess gained from 16 months vinification and maturation on the lees. A fabulous pairing with pan-seared scallops, it would also go well with goat or cow’s milk cheeses, chicken Francese, and garlic sausages. Drinking beautifully now, but built to last—most likely for another decade or longer. Organically produced.