Championing Aligoté

IF YOU OWN land under vine on Burgundy’s legendary Côte d’Or, don’t expect many commiserations. Prices for grand cru vineyards have doubled in a decade and you can probably sell every drop you bottle, twice. All you need do is exactly what your predecessors did, give or take a few winery improvements and perhaps a more careful attitude to chemicals on the vines.

Of course, you’re worried about climate change and you fret about frost and hail. But as a winemaker in one of the world’s best-loved wine regions, you probably encounter pity only slightly more frequently than you see Cabernet Sauvignon vines.

But that’s all right: Burgundy’s best young winemakers aren’t looking for pity, except perhaps from the heavens in the matter of late spring frosts. What they want is something even less in evidence: a chance to remake the world. It’s all very well doing things just