2023 Sextant - Julien Altaber 'Po à Po' Aligote

Producer: Julien Altaber  |  Region: Burgundy  |  Style: Skin-Contact

About The Wine

Julien Altaber is quite restless and always searching for new challenges. It was therefore inevitable that he would make a skin contact wine using white grapes to produce an orange wine as they are known.

The wine is made from the wonderful Aligoté grape variety from a four hectare plot in the Cote Chalonaisse. The grapes (50% destemmed and 50% whole bunches) were crushed and then, instead of the juice being run off, it was left in contact with the skins for an nine day period allowing the anthocyanins and other polyphenols in the skins and pips to leach into the juice.

The presence of the anthocyanins from the skins turns the wine a light orange colour and some of the other polyphenols extracted during the maceration give the wine a lovely rounded mouth feel.

This is a very complex wine and only made in tiny quantities.

About Julien Altaber

Born in the Auvergne region and raised in southern Burgundy, Julien Altaber's path began with childhood summers spent among cattle and tractors, instilling a deep connection to agricultural life. After secondary school, farming seemed the natural choice, but the realities of peasant agriculture led him toward the vineyards of the Mâconnais region.

At 16, Altaber's first winemaking internship proved transformative—the harvest, fermentation, and wine world captivated him completely. Following experiences across Mâconnais and Beaujolais, he spent two years at a Beaune trading house in 2000 before joining Dominique Derain's organic estate in Saint-Aubin in 2002.

Under Derain's mentorship, Altaber discovered organic farming, biodynamics, and natural winemaking while mastering every aspect of production. In 2007, encouraged by Dominique, he purchased his first Pinot Noir grapes, launching SEXTANT wines using borrowed facilities. By 2010, he acquired his first vineyard plot, expanded in 2013 with a winery in Saint-Aubin and plots in Pommard, and planted an additional half-hectare in 2015.

Snapshot

Region: Côte Chalonaisse, Burgundy

Country: France

Alcohol: 11%

Vintage: 2023

Size: 750ml

Closure: Cork

Varieties: Aligote