Nose
The aromas are fresh pear and lavender with a saline background.
Palate
With flavors of fresh pear, lemon curd and hazelnuts, this is a delightful, elegant food wine.
Growing Conditions
Our Aligoté is grown at Le Bon Climat Vineyard, next to our high end grapes. In the Santa Maria Valley we usually have nice ripening weather extending into early November. This long growing season is eight weeks longer than the growing season in Burgundy meaning a more expressive wine.
Winemaking
The grapes are handpicked and hand sorted in the vineyard, then whole-cluster pressed and settled for two days. The longer term settling eliminates some of the more lessy characters in the finished wines by minimizing the solids in the barrels during the primary and malo-lactic fermentations.
Aging
It is aged in older, neutral Francois Frères cooperage for 10 months, and then bottled after a light fining and filtration.
Food Pairing
Its mouth-watering, firm acidity meshes with the steely/mineral character and rich texture, making it a natural with shellfish. A bottle of Aligoté, a plate of garlicky clams and an ocean view sounds like a perfect match.
