Domaine Les Petits Lieux Bourgogne Aligoté 2024
We have 12 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
Summer Shipping Advisory: Orders may be temporarily held during periods of extreme heat to ensure wine arrives in optimal condition.
View current shipping weather map →
The Land
Aligoté is Burgundy's other white grape, and for most of the last century it was the one you planted where Chardonnay would not ripen: flat ground, cold pockets, the leftover rows. That has changed, and this bottling draws on two of the areas driving the change. The fruit comes from around Meursault in the Côte de Beaune and from the Côte Chalonnaise to the south, both of them limestone country. Meursault's slopes give marl and limestone with genuine depth of soil. The Chalonnaise, a broken continuation of the Côte d'Or scattered across a geological fault, gives similar rock at slightly higher elevation with wider variation in exposure and colder nights. Aligoté planted on limestone keeps its acidity high and its aromatics tight, which is the same reason Chardonnay works here.
The Wine
One hundred percent Aligoté. The house method is hand-harvesting, fully destemmed fruit, and aging in traditional 228-liter pièces bourguignonnes, with the whites given a longer élevage than the reds. 2024 was a brutal growing season and a good one for this grape. Burgundy took roughly double its average rainfall, around 1,200 millimeters, with 97 fewer hours of sunshine than normal and downy mildew pressure that had Côte de Beaune growers spraying fifteen times or more. Chardonnay and Aligoté flowered in a better window than Pinot Noir and escaped the worst of it. August turned the vintage, delivering over 300 hours of sun, seventy above average, and harvest ran from roughly September 12 to September 24. The wines came in lean and precise: chalk, green apple, lemon rind and a salty, slightly bitter grip that separates good Aligoté from merely tart Aligoté.
The People
Les Petits Lieux made its first wines in 2023, but the address is not new. Guillaume Rouget and Laure Guilloteau took over Henri Jayer's former cuverie in Vosne-Romanée and restored its original equipment, and these are the first wines vinified in that building in more than two decades. Rouget is Jayer's great-nephew and the son of Emmanuel Rouget, the man who inherited Jayer's vines and his method, and he has been making wine at Domaine Emmanuel Rouget since 2009. Guilloteau is an oenologist. The name comes from a line of Jayer's about the winemaker's duty to stand humble before so much richness concentrated in so small a place. They own no vineyards. This is a deliberate micro-négoce built on buying the best fruit they can find.
Food Pairing
Aligoté was made by circumstance for exactly this. Gougères, warm from the oven, the Burgundian reflex. Escargots in garlic butter, where the acidity resets your palate between each one. A slab of country pâté with cornichons and sharp mustard. Or the simplest version, a wedge of Époisses or young Comté and a baguette. Keep a bottle in the door of the fridge for the nights when dinner is really just cheese and bread.
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.
Burgundy, in eastern France, encompasses several subregions, but it is the Côte d'Or that is home to many of the world's most expensive and revered wines. The region, primarily a single east-facing slope, has mixed limestone soils that vary dramatically from village to village and even vineyard to vineyard. White wines, crafted from Chardonnay, range from rich and opulent to lean and intensely mineral, while Pinot Noir produces silky, perfumed red wines of exceptional finesse and complexity. Centuries of winemaking tradition have resulted in every plot being meticulously recognized and scrutinized, making the Côte d'Or a true capital of terroir.
Burgundy - Cote d'Or
Aligoté is a historic white grape of Burgundy, long overshadowed by Chardonnay but increasingly valued for its freshness and versatility. First documented in the region in the 18th century, it was traditionally used in everyday wines or blended with crème de cassis for Kir. Today, quality-minded producers—especially in Bouzeron, the only communal AOC dedicated to the grape—are showing its potential when grown on limestone soils and handled with care. Aligoté typically offers high acidity, light body, and flavors of green apple, citrus, and subtle herbal notes, making it a crisp, food-friendly alternative to richer white varieties.
