Charles Lachaux

Charles Lachaux runs two separate things in Vosne-Romanee, and it's worth knowing which is which. Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux is the family estate — founded 1858, handed to him by his parents in 2015 — where he farms 14.5 hectares of some of the most prized ground in the village, aging every red in ceramic rather than oak, a technique essentially no one else in Burgundy uses. His mentor is Lalou Bize-Leroy of Domaine Leroy, arguably the most respected biodynamic grower in France.

Charles Lachaux the label is something else entirely: a separate micro-negociant business he started in 2018, born out of an odd obsession with Aligote. He'd blind-tasted a top grower's Aligote against serious white Grand Crus and couldn't stop thinking about it — his own family had once grown Aligote and given up on it, selling the grapes off cheap. He started buying it back, one plot at a time, alongside grapes from friends who didn't want their fruit disappearing into some large negociant's blend.