Folk Machine Potter Valley Aligoté 2024
We have 12 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
The Land
Potter Valley is not cool by daytime numbers. Afternoons in this inland basin in east-central Mendocino County get hot, and the valley counts as Region III, with a growing season of about 197 days. What sets it apart is altitude and the nights. The valley floor sits at 920 to 1,020 feet, about 200 feet above the neighboring valleys, and mountains rise more than 600 feet higher around it. After sundown, cold air settles into the bowl and the temperature drops sharply. That nightly drop keeps the acidity in a white grape intact. The soils are alluvial, mainly the Cole, San Ysidro, Botella, and Pinole series. Vecino Vineyard is farmed organically and sits in the middle of all this.
The Wine
Aligoté is Burgundy's other white grape, and California grows very little of it. Folk Machine Potter Valley Aligoté 2024 is the second vintage from what Hobo believes is the only planting in Potter Valley. Hobo places the style somewhere between Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. The debut 2023, the template for this wine, was whole-cluster pressed and fermented in a concrete egg plus one new French half barrel. It rested nine months in the egg, then two more months in neutral barrels, and went through full malolactic, finishing at 12.9% alcohol. Expect green apple, lemon pith, sea salt, a chalky grip, and a taut, mouthwatering finish. In 2024 a long July heat spell hit inland California, which is exactly when Potter Valley's cold nights pay off.
The People
Kenny Likitprakong runs several labels, and each one has a job. He started Banyan in 2002 with his father, Somchai, the longtime general manager of Domaine Saint George in Healdsburg. Banyan's whites, including Gewürztraminer and Riesling, were designed for Asian cooking. Folk Machine came in 2006 as a home for Pinot Noir and a tribute to Woody Guthrie. Today it is Hobo's outlet for small-production, esoteric wines: Valdiguié, Charbono, Arroyo Seco Gamay, Clarksburg Chenin. Aligoté fits right in. The cellar rules hold across every label, with older oak, no commercial additives, and spontaneous malolactic. Only one Hobo wine is inoculated with commercial yeast, the Banyan Gewürztraminer.
Food Pairing
Aligoté's lean, chalky acidity is made for butter and shellfish. Serve gougères warm from the oven, where the Gruyère's richness meets the wine's bite head on. Make sole meunière with brown butter, capers, and parsley. The acidity cuts the butter, and the salinity echoes the capers. Steam mussels with shallots, garlic, and a splash of the wine, then drag bread through the broth. Or bake a leek and Comté tart, where the sweet leeks soften the citrus edge. Keep a bottle in the fridge door for nights when dinner is just bread, cheese, and whatever is in the crisper.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.