Anne Boisson - Bourgogne Aligote 2019 (750ml)
Wine Advocate: 89 Points
The 2019 Bourgogne Aligoté is performing especially well delivering aromas of waxy pear toasted nuts and citrus oil followed by a medium to full-bodied concentrated and lively palate that concludes with chalky grip. Readers might think of it as a more concentrated version of the 2017. As ever the bearded Bernard Boisson presided over my annual tasting in the usual refreshingly old-school manner offering splashes from a variety of bottles some open for several days and some opened for my benefit. As readers will remember Bernard's holdings have been entirely divided between his son Pierre and daughter Anne. On this visit Boisson père explained that in fact Pierre and Anne operate separately though cooperatively (Pierre taking care of all the tractor work in the vineyards) and vinify in their own way?though the two labels' styles are undeniably more similar than different. As I understood it Bernard himself acts as a sort of unlikely business manager for the duo hosting tastings and managing the wines' distribution. As I've written before in his day Bernard Boisson was one of the village's latest harvesters and his wines only spent a year on the lees with much of the production sold to the négociants. With Pierre's arrival at the domaine some 15 years ago that changed dramatically: The domaine has returned as Bernard puts it to doing things as they were done in his grandfather's era. That means earlier harvesting little débourbage long sur lie élevage ranging from 19 to 22 months and restrained use of new oak?up to 30% largely from Saint-Romain's Tonnellerie Gillet recognizable for the toasty nutty patina that it imparts (Gillet barrels also dominate chez Niellon in Chassagne-Montrachet). The entire production is now bottled without filtration under natural cork.
