2019 Côte de Nuits Village - Aux Montagnes

Charles Lachaux is at the helm of Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux and has in a few years – with a steady hand and an indomitable will – made major changes in both the vineyard and the cellar with very convincing results. In parallel, he started a négociant project under his own name in 2018, which has caught our attention from the beginning.

The négociant project arose because the Lachaux family has a vineyard planted with Aligoté, from which they historically have always sold the grapes. Charles has used the vineyard to do experiments in improving the vineyard work – heavily inspired by Lalou Bize-Leroy – but since he creates Aligoté grapes of unprecedented high quality, why not make it into wine? In addition, Charles buys Pinot Noir from selected plots working closely with the owners that cultivate according to the same principles. Yields are extremely low, work is done biodynamically, and the leaf cover is braided together rather than trimmed, which requires an enormous number of working hours.

In the cellar, the same sense of detail prevails. The Aligoté shows an impressive balance, and it is obvious that Charles Lachaux has great respect for Bize-Leroy’s handling of this grape variety. His red wines are bright, elegant and sophisticated and are characterized by an increasing use of whole clusters in recent years while extraction has decreased, all the while the use of sulphur is kept at an absolute minimum.