David Moret `Le Grand A` Aligoté Vin de France 2020

If you closed your eyes and took a sip, you could be definitely be drinking good Meursault. But no, this is Aligoté grown on 60-year-old vines from Bouzeron, just a few km south. It is not your typical Aligoté, of course, being extremely concentrated (due to the old vines) and given the royal treatment with 18 months in French oak, of which a 25% is new, after a wild alcoholic and full malolactic fermentation. The resulting wine is rich, luscious and textured. On the nose you'll find orchard and white stone fruit character, with just a whiff of almond croissant. On the palate the wine is nutty, toasted and soft. A really, really gorgeous wine.  

David Moret is a micro-négociant making only white wines in his small cellar in Beaune. We've been fans of his work for some time, and we're not alone. He studied oenology, but then went on to sell winemaking supplies before finally deciding to make wines himself. With no family-owned vines, he bought grapes to vinify, purchasing his first barrels in the late 1990s and starting the Moret-Nominé label in 2000. Since then, he has continued to buy small parcels of grapes from top growers, to vinify in his cellars. Fermented using indigenous yeasts, the wines are bottled without fining or filtration after the natural settling that occurs during their period in oak. David uses 20% new oak for his Villages wines and up to 40% new oak for his Premiers and Grands Crus.