by Patrick Ogle

Celine & Laurent Tripoz Bourgogne Aligote 2015 is one of those rare Burgundy whites that is not chardonnay. Aligote, the second white grape of the region, is the star here.

At first sniff I couldn't draw a clean line from the smell to appropriate words. I thought there was something that reminded me of baked goods, not the breadiness of Champagne or the malolactic butteriness of a California chardonnay. Think of a fresh croissant. The nose has hints of tropical fruit. I also smelled and tasted apple. This fruit is not pronounced. The citrus isn't a run of the mill lemon but some exotic relative of the lemon. I almost ran to the computer to look one up. There is also a mineral stoniness here, something slate-like.

The wine is acidic and tart with a bit of a bitter finish that holds on and persists. It is a really lively wine with what seems to be a lot of co2. The acidity is up there with those acidic wines riesling and chenin blanc. But it is not analogous to either of those for many reasons. The tartness, the sharpness in the wine calms down with even a little air.

Since chardonnay is king in Burgundy the vast majority of experts will talk of aligote as inferior or a curiosity (or a component in the drink "Kir"). It is, in fact, its own thing (a phrase I repeat ad nauseum). Aligote is a worthy grape and a This would be a great Thanksgiving wine for Americans; it would be great with turkey or ham.

by Patrick Ogle

Arizona Stronghold's Fort Bowie chenin blanc 2014 is "surprising" mostly because of where the grapes are from and he wine created. Chenin blanc is far from an oddball grape.

This wine has definite hints of citrus but my expectation was for more fruit than you'd find in a French chenin. Yet, it really wasn't there in the way I expected. There is fruit but it is far from overwhelming. There is a little
honey here (how I found this out is by going to sniff the wine and actually sucking some INTO MY NOSE. I then noticed the honey! I do not recommend this method.

This chenin has a silky mouthfeel. Mouthfeel is what you think it is, how the wine feels in your mouth. This definitely has a heavy silky feel.

You imagine that a wine from a hot area like arizona wouldnt have the acidity of a cooler are like the Loire. But it has the pronounced acidity you expect from the grape. The wine seems to get a little bit "rounder" with air but it doesn't collapse. I may take a sip tomorrow to find out (No such luck. I drank it all).

When the wine gets some air the fruit does come out and you find more than just citrus. There are fuller more orchard-like fruits--Peach or apricot perhaps. But even so the acidic backbone remains. this would be a great food wine. A bottle of this would rock with a Thanksgiving dinner.

Since this is a chenin I can compare to Loire examples and the world's biggest chenin producer, South Africa. It has more in common with the latter than the former. There is minerality but not anything I would call earthiness. This wine
is unique from either the Loire or South Africa, lying somewhere between the two both in acidity and fruit.

The only problem with this wine might be finding it outside the great state of Arizona. They do have distribution outside Arizona but, at least in Illinois, they did not carry the chenin.