Burgundy's other white is a full sibling of Chardonnay: both are natural crosses of Pinot and Gouais Blanc, the prolific medieval pairing that peopled the region's vineyards. Aligoté drew the shorter straw — as the hierarchy of the climats hardened, it was pushed off the mid-slopes onto the flats and windy hilltops, and its sharp, lemony wine became Burgundy's everyday pour.
Canon Félix Kir, mayor of Dijon, made that acidity famous by softening it with blackcurrant liqueur, lending his name to the apéritif. The grape's own rehabilitation came later: Bouzeron received its own appellation in 1998, and old-vine bottlings from committed growers now show what the flats had hidden — lemon, white flowers and a chalky cut that needs no cassis.