Aligoté

Aligoté is Burgundy's other white grape, a sibling of chardonnay from the same pinot noir and gouais blanc crossing. It has always been the junior partner: planted on the flatter, cooler, less well drained land, higher yielding, and legally excluded from almost every good appellation.

It is leaner and sharper than chardonnay, with lemon, green apple and a chalky, sometimes slightly bitter finish, and less body. That sharpness is why it became the base of the kir, mixed with crème de cassis, a drink invented partly to make thin aligoté palatable. It is a fair description of a lot of the wine and an unfair one of the best.

Bouzeron in the Côte Chalonnaise is the one appellation devoted to it, and a number of well-regarded Burgundy producers now bottle old-vine aligoté from decent sites, which has quietly improved the grape's standing. It is also widely planted across eastern Europe, particularly in Moldova, Ukraine and Romania, where it is a workhorse white.