Charles Lachaux Cote de Nuits Villages Aux Montagnes 2019

Charles Lachaux from Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux started his micro-négoce because of Aligoté. On several occasions, he had blind tasted d’Auvenay’s Aligoté Sous Châtelet alongside serious premier and grand cru chardonnays. Sometimes it trounced the other whites; sometimes it was a least in the same league —always, it was up there. The Arnoux family owns Aligoté and used to bottle it. But at some point it was deemed unworthy and the grapes were sold off to négociants. Charles wanted to vinify those grapes again. In addition to the Aligoté, the début for the Charles Lachaux label included five wines. Only the Aligoté is owned, and the fruit for the other wines is purchased from friends with conscientious farming practices. Incidentally, the label was designed by Charles’ wife Louise who is a graphic designer. The rose is for the couple’s eldest daughter Rose. With one exception, there are no noteworthy differences in winemaking between the Charles Lachaux and Arnoux-Lachaux wines. The exception is ageing. The Charles Lachaux wines are bottled after a little less than a year as opposed to 18 months for the domaine wines. This difference does have an impact. The négoce wines are fruit-driven, caught before their stay in oak leaves noticeable patina —vins de soif. Of course, they’re still from Burgundy and can age. But the goal is immediate pleasure. All the grapes are picked by the Lachaux team. All the wines, including the Aligoté, are pressed in a vertical press. Fermentations are with ambient yeasts. There are no additions of sulfur until after malo. The reds are 100% whole cluster. Macerations are noteworthy for their brevity. They are also noteworthy for their lack of extraction. There is a daily pump over. The reds are aged in older barrels with the exception of the Nuits Saint Georges 1er Cru les Boudots and the Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru les Suchots, each having one new Stockinger barrel, or 20% of the cuvées. Total sulfur at bottling ranges between 23 and 38ppm. In the domaine’s vineyards, Charles has become the single most progressive vigneron in the region — no one had yet had the courage to try no till. In the winery, the crunch, precision, soul, and transparency of the wines, whether from the domaine or the négoce, is magical.