Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux was founded in 1858. The estate is blessed with some of the finest vineyards in Vosne Romanee, including four Grand Crus and five Premier Crus. Robert Arnoux’s son in law, Pascal Lachaux ran the estate from 1987 to 2012. During those years, Pascal applied 100% new oak in the Grand Cru wines, 100% destemmed, sufficient extraction and organic to biodynamic practices in the vineyards. In 2012, the son of Pascal Lachaux, Charles Lachaux took over the Domaine and changed the winemaking style drastically.
Note: The name of the estate was changed from Domaine Robert Arnoux to Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux in 2009.
Charles Lachaux is a huge fan and follower of Madam Lalou Bize-Leroy from Domaine Leroy and Domaine d’Auvenay. Charles is practicing some of Lalou-Bize Leroy’s unique vineyard approaches, such as not pruning the top branch of the vines in two of his favourite vineyards, Vosne Romanee Aux Reignots and Romanee Saint Vivant. Charles and his vineyard team only trims the Aux Reignots and Romanee Saint Vivant plot when the branch reaches around 3 meters tall, that is the length when the branch starts to weaken and even snap. The team will trim down from 3 meters to about 1.2 meters tall. Charles told us the reason for not trimming is to allow the roots to grow deeper into the soil and absorb more flavours from deep earth. Charles also introduced whole cluster fermentation to the estate as well as using less new oak and less extraction.