Charles Lachaux's ground-breaking viticulture and meticulous winemaking have achieved spectacular results at Vosne-Romanée's Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux, leading to considerable excitement about his ambitious micro-négociant project.
Inspired by the Aligoté of Lalou Bize-Leroy's Domaine d'Auvenay, Charles initially planned to vinify just one cuvée under his own name, using the Lachaux family's 0.6ha plot of old vine Aligoté in Vosne-Romanée.
Once other growers witnessed (and tasted) the transformative – not to mention controversial – changes made at Arnoux-Lachaux, they began approaching Charles to work with their fruit, eager to follow his instruction and raise their viticultural game. His method involves replacing conventional 'hedging' (trimming the tops of the vines) with tressage (the laborious plaiting of the canopy); no longer ploughing or cutting grass to boost mycorrhizal diversity; grazing sheep and other animals in the vineyards; and radically modifying the training and pruning of vines with the aim of growing more harmonious fruit.
Charles treats the négoce wines as those of Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux: grapes are pressed gently before undergoing fermentation (with whole clusters for the reds) using ambient yeasts. Aged in a combination of barrels and ceramic vessels for just under a year, they are bottled without fining or filtration. The results combine spellbinding fruit perfumes with beautifully supple textures.
Lavished with the same unrivalled care as his domaine wines, what Charles has achieved in such a short space of time is nothing short of astonishing.
