About Charles Lachaux
Charles Lachaux took over his family's Vosne-Romanée estate, Arnoux-Lachaux, with the 2012 vintage and spent the following decade rebuilding how it farms. Vines are trained high rather than clipped to the usual low wire, pruning happens late, ploughing replaced herbicide, and picking comes earlier than most of the village. Alongside that work he started a small label under his own name, which is what this page collects: Aloxe-Corton Les Valozières, Côte de Nuits-Villages Aux Montagnes, Nuits-Saint-Georges La Petite Charmotte, the La Croix Blanche bottling and an Aligoté. The wines are made whole bunch with very little extraction and land on the perfumed, lifted side of red Burgundy.
These bottles are the accessible way into a name that has become one of the hardest to buy in the Côte de Nuits. Our Vosne-Romanée Wines and Burgundy Wines pages cover the neighboring estates, and Pinot Noir follows the grape further afield.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Charles Lachaux and Arnoux-Lachaux?
Arnoux-Lachaux is the family domaine in Vosne-Romanée, with grand crus including Romanée-Saint-Vivant, Echézeaux and Clos de Vougeot. Charles Lachaux is his separate label, made from fruit outside those holdings, and it sells for a fraction of the domaine price.
Why are Lachaux wines so hard to buy?
Production is small, the domaine wines were re-rated sharply after 2015, and demand arrived faster than the vineyards could grow. Allocations are fixed and most bottles are spoken for before release.
What is high trellising and why does Lachaux use it?
Instead of trimming the canopy to the standard height, the shoots are trained upward and left long. It gives the vine more leaf surface to ripen fruit at lower sugar, which is how the wines keep freshness in warm vintages.
How long do Charles Lachaux wines age?
The village and regional bottlings drink well from three to ten years. The premier crus want longer. Whole bunch fermentation gives them a stemmy edge early on that settles after a few years in bottle.