Critic ratings
robert_parker
2018
Rating:
92
–92
The 2018 Bourgogne Aligoté Sous Chatelet is superb, offering up aromas of citrus zest, crisp green orchard fruit, white flowers, praline and toasted sesame. Medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's taut and incisive, with chalky structure and a long, penetrating finish.
robert_parker
2014
Rating:
94
–94
A wine of remarkably depth and concentration, the 2014 Bourgogne Aligoté Sous Chatelet unfurls in the glass with aromas of crisp green orchard fruit, citrus zest, freshly baked bread, smoke and struck flint. Medium to full-bodied, tightly wound and searingly intense, it's structured and incisive, with prodigious levels of dry extract and a racy spine of acidity. By the last glass, it also takes on considerable texture and mid-palate volume. Still immensely youthful, this is a legendary Aligoté in the making that transcends expectations of this humble variety.
robert_parker
2016
Rating:
92
–92
Unfurling in the glass with aromas of pear and citrus oil that are framed by a touch of nutty reduction, the 2016 Bourgogne Aligoté Sous Chatelet is medium to full-bodied, satiny and searingly intense, with terrific depth, concentration and chewy dry extract, concluding with a long finish. More reductive and acid-driven than the 2015 rendition in style, it's more reminiscent of the 2014. It will reward with bottle age.
robert_parker
1999
Rating:
88
–88
The 1999 Bourgogne Aligote Sous Chatelet offers a spice, smoke, and yellow fruit-scented nose. On the palate it is light-to-medium-bodied, softly textured, and lush. This tangy mineral, apple, and well-made wine has excellent grip as well as length. Drink it over the next 4-5 years.
Importer: Martine's Wines, San Raphael, CA; tel. (415) 485-1800.
robert_parker
1996
Rating:
89
–89
The Bourgogne Aligote Sous Chatelet, produced from vines located on the steep hill behind the estate, has a magnificently expressive nose of butterscotch, anise, candied white fruits, and spices. On the palate, it is medium-bodied, silky, and loaded with orange rinds, red currants, baking spices, minerals, and smoke-like flavors. This is the only one of Lalou Bize-Leroy's 1996 whites that will reach its peak in this millennium. Anticipated maturity: now-2003. Kudos for Mme. Leroy for producing such a majestic range of white Burgundies.
Whereas other producers covered me with explanations as to why high yields were acceptable in 1996, Lalou Bize-Leroy averaged 15 hectoliters/hectare on her whites, less than one third the yields she could have taken. A self-proclaimed non-interventionist, she told me "all the oenologists told me to deacidify my wines in 1996. To me it is a crime, akin to de-boning a man. Wine is life." Leroy, who says she always harvests late in order to gain additional ripeness, only chaptalised one of her 1996s, the Chevalier-Montrachet (2 kilograms of sugar per barrel). None of these offerings were fined or filtered. Consequently, they are already throwing a deposit.
Importers: Martine's Wines, Inc., San Rafael, CA; tel (415) 485-1800.