Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux and Charles Lachaux. Same hands. Different intent. At a glance, these two labels bear the same last name, the same cellar, and the same guiding mind. But look closer and you’ll find two distinct worlds—one rooted in legacy, the other in personal conviction.

Charles Lachaux took the reins of his family’s domaine in Vosne-Romanée around 2012, inheriting 14.5 hectares of old vines—averaging over 60 years—spread across some of Burgundy’s most coveted sites. He has since become arguably the most progressive vigneron in the region: the first in the Côte d’Or to practice no-till, using sheep to keep the grass down and the soil well-fed, and the developer of his own pruning method. In the cellar, he’s moved away from oak in favor of sandstone and ceramic vessels.

Domaine Charles Lachaux is a micro-négoce born not of inheritance, but of urgency. In 2018, Charles launched this separate label with a single mission: to reclaim the family’s aligoté—and, soon after, to offer sanctuary to friends’ fruit that deserved better than anonymity in a bulk cuvée. The wines are made with the same care and conscience as the domaine bottlings, but aged for less time and meant to be drunk younger.

The 2024 vintage tested everyone. Burgundy endured its most challenging growing season in decades—unprecedented rainfall, rampant mildew, frost, and hail ravaged the Côte de Nuits. Charles is releasing just three wines to export this vintage.

From a slope just outside the limelight, the Côte de Nuits Villages Aux Montagnes captures the pulse of Burgundy in motion. Farmed with the same reverence as his grander holdings and made without compromise—whole cluster, ambient yeast, no fining or filtration.

It nearly hums with energy: black currant, crushed tarragon, a flicker of clove, and the unmistakable clarity that runs through all of Charles’s work. The vintage’s cooler, classical profile lends the wine a lovely freshness and fine-grained structure.