The Land
Bouzeron is the only village appellation in Burgundy made exclusively from Aligoté. Everywhere else in the region the grape is confined to the regional Bourgogne Aligoté label; here it has its own name on the map, promoted from Bourgogne Aligoté de Bouzeron to full village status in the late 1990s after a campaign three growers started in 1974 and Aubert de Villaine, co-director of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and a Bouzeron resident since the early 1970s, carried across the line. From 1973 he selected specifically for Aligoté Doré, the older, lower-yielding, golden-berried strain, rather than the more productive green-skinned Aligoté Vert. The appellation covers 62.47 hectares between 270 and 350 meters, facing east and southeast, on white marls from Oxfordian limestone up top and brown marly soils from Bathonian limestone lower down. The slopes are steep, the soils thin, and the Aligoté takes the upper ground.
The Wine
100% Aligoté at 12%, from old vines. Gautheron d'Anost works in small volumes, ferments on ambient yeast, uses a fraction of barrel with the rest in stainless, and keeps élevage short. Sulfur goes in at the start of fermentation and then not again until bottling. Lemon zest, apricot, a floral edge, creamy in texture with lively acidity and a saline, persistent finish. On 2024: the Côte Chalonnaise caught the April frost along with the Hautes-Côtes and Chablis, and losses across the region were significant, but southern Burgundy outperformed the north qualitatively in this vintage. The wines came in lower in alcohol and higher in acid than the recent norm, which for Aligoté is not a compromise. It is the target.
The People
Bastien Gautheron founded Maison Gautheron d'Anost in 2020, first generation, with no domaine behind him. Anost is a Morvan village west of the Côte d'Or where his mother's family comes from. He began oenology at 15, trained at the Lycée Viticole de Beaune, worked at Olivier Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet until 2019, and now makes roughly 12,000 bottles a year out of a converted warehouse in Dijon's Arsenal district. About a fifth of production comes from his own vines in Savigny-lès-Beaune and the Hautes Côtes de Beaune, certified organic since 2017; the rest is bought fruit from growers farming organically or effectively so, not all of it certified. This bottle illustrates the strategy well. Rather than fight for allocations in the famous villages, he goes to appellations where the wine is better than the reputation and finds growers with old vines in them.
Food Pairing
Bouzeron is the Aligoté that can carry a course rather than just the hour before one. Oysters and crustaceans to start, then veal in cream sauce, a mushroom risotto, or a chèvre with some age on it. Gougères, always, if people are standing around the kitchen. Serve at 10 to 11 degrees. If you have never taken Aligoté seriously, this is the appellation that makes the argument, and 62 hectares does not amount to many bottles.
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