Charles Lachaux

Charles Lachaux is particularly known for his role within Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux. But he also has his own side business, a separate micro-negociant project under his own name. It all began in 2018 with a single grape variety and a remarkable find and has since grown into one of the most sought-after small-scale (négociant) projects in Burgundy.

The story behind it

Like already mentioned the start was the Aligoté grape. The Arnoux family owns an Aligoté vineyard and used to bottle wine from it, but at some point decided to sell the grapes to large wine merchants. Charles blind-tasted an Aligoté from Lalou Bize-Leroy in Sous Châtelet alongside some serious Premier Cru and Grand Cru Chardonnays and found it to be their equal. He wanted to vinify this family grape himself.

Rather than causing a stir at the estate, which was already undergoing significant changes under his leadership, he set up a separate trading company. The family still had the tanks and a separate building left over from an earlier project by his father, Pascal. Logistically, it was straightforward.

The vineyards

Aligoté is the only variety owned by the family under the Charles Lachaux brand. For everything else, Charles buys grapes from young winegrowers he knows personally, people who have recently inherited family vineyards and are carefully tending them, but whose grapes were previously snapped up by large trading companies for blending. 

Charles describes his trading company as a laboratory: “I experiment with different things, and if they work, we sometimes apply them at the winery.”

Winemaking

The approach mirrors that of the winery almost entirely. All grapes are harvested by hand and pressed in a vertical press. Only wild yeasts are used for fermentation, with no sulphur added until malolactic fermentation is complete.

Red wines are fermented using 70–90% whole bunches and macerated for around 10 days before soft pressing. The proportion of new oak ranges from 10 to 30%. All vineyards supplying the harvest are cultivated using organic or biodynamic farming methods.

The only difference from Arnoux-Lachaux is the ageing period. Charles Lachaux wines are bottled in less than a year, whereas the domaine’s wines are aged for around 18 months. The idea is that the wines should be good when young, yet still have the potential to age.

Wines

The debut range in 2018 comprised six wines. Today, the range includes Aligoté as the main white wine, as well as a small selection of ‘villages’ and ‘premier cru’ reds from Vosne-Romanée, Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny and Nuits-Saint-Georges, depending on the vintage and the grapes available.

Production is very small, volumes are limited, and the wines sell out immediately upon release.