Julien Altaber "Foufouette" Aligoté, Burgundy, France 2024

FROM PERCY SELECTIONS:

THE WINE: Direct press Aligoté, then bottled before fermentation is complete. Fermentation is finished in bottle, where the co2 is captured. Julien puts a large “tea bag” of apricots in with the fermenting wine and it develops undertones of the apricots without dominating the resultant sparkling wine.

Why did he do such a radical thing for this wine. Well, it is all rather simple. The famous Belgian brewer of lambic beers, Cantillon, has a beer called Fou’Foune and guess what they do. You guessed, they add 300 grams of apricots for every one litre of beer and leave it to macerate for 5 weeks. So this is an homage to a beer that Julien likes very much.

THE PRODUCER: Julien Altaber was not born Burgundian nor did he inherit vines, as most of Burgundy’s successful vignerons have. Raised in Auvergne, he hoped to continue the family tradition of dairy farming. But after insistence from his mother, he enrolled in trade school to study viticulture, setting his life on an unexpected path. His mother may have imagined her son at work for a lucrative Cote D’Or domaine where men in suits line up to purchase Pinot “futures,” but Julien always wanted to work for himself, in his own vines. Despite its idyllic appearance, the political economy of Burgundy is increasingly similar to Bordeaux or Napa, with serious barriers to entry for young vignerons with big ideas and small pockets. This is the landscape that Julien confronted after trade school: record-high cost of land and not a lot of friendly faces.

There’s a subtlety in these Burgundies that bears an obvious resemblance to Julien’s mentor, Dominique Derain. At the same time, though, there’s an incredible energy and liveliness that results from Julien’s gentle, hands-off cellar work. He believes that Burgundies are at their best without chaptalization, even if nature gives him a mere 11% alcohol, as is often the case in Maranages. Fermentation is always spontaneous and sulfur is usually avoided entirely. Finally, the wines are left unfiltered to showcase the aromatic complexity of Julien’s unique terroirs.