The 2022 Vintage at Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux feels quietly historic.
This is the first vintage raised entirely in ceramic. A bold step for a Domaine already operating at the summit. The intention is clarity. Purity. Wines with nothing between the fruit and the truth, allowing the grapes to tell the story of their terroir and their season with absolute freedom.
It is, without question, a monumental success.
2022 Vintage at Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux
The 2022 vintage in Burgundy arrived early and with confidence. A warm, dry growing season set the tone, delivering fruit of excellent health and natural ripeness across the Côte. Flowering began early, with the first stages appearing in May, and the rhythm of the year was firmly established well ahead of recent norms. Harvest at Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux began on 24th August, marking another notably early campaign.
While the summer brought sustained heat and dryness, the vines at Arnoux-Lachaux were unusually well prepared for such conditions. Charles Lachaux’s approach to viticulture, now fully embedded across the domaine, is built around allowing the vineyard to regulate itself. Permanent ground cover is encouraged, with grasses and natural vegetation left to grow between the rows. This protects the soils from excessive heat, preserves moisture, and promotes biodiversity beneath the surface. In a year where water stress was a concern elsewhere, these living soils acted as a natural buffer, keeping the vines balanced and active.
A defining element of this work is vine training. Rather than trimming, the vines are allowed to grow tall, trained to around 1.8 metres, with the canopy guided and arched instead of cut. This spreads the vine’s energy across the whole plant, reducing stress and avoiding the push toward oversized berries. The result is smaller grapes, thicker skins, and a more even ripening cycle. Despite the warmth of the season, acidity levels remained remarkably well preserved, and yields in 2022 reached the domaine’s expected levels, a rare alignment of quantity and quality in a warm year.
In the Cellar
Crucially, 2022 represents a milestone for Arnoux-Lachaux. It is the first vintage in which Charles’ vision was able to be expressed in its entirety. All wines from the domaine were aged exclusively in ceramic vessels, specifically the Clayver system, marking a complete move away from traditional oak barrels. This choice is not about modernity for its own sake, but about neutrality. Ceramic allows the wine to evolve slowly and gently, without aromatic imprint, ensuring that nothing stands between the fruit, the soil, and the finished wine.
Élevage for the 2022s lasted an extended 36 months in ceramic before bottling. This long, patient ageing allows the wines to settle naturally, gaining clarity and precision without being shaped by wood or overt winemaking influence. The resulting wines show remarkable transparency. Perfume is pure and lifted, textures are refined, and the sense of place is strikingly clear from glass to glass.
The 2022 vintage at Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux is therefore not just a product of favourable weather, but of philosophy meeting opportunity. A warm year, handled with restraint. Healthy fruit, guided rather than forced. And a cellar approach designed to reveal, not embellish.
This is Burgundy stripped back to its essence, and a defining chapter in the evolution of Charles Lachaux’s work.
Reading back through my notes, one word recurs like a heartbeat: perfume. Not as a throwaway cliché, but as a presence that truly rises from the glass. These 2022s may still be infants, but the leap forward Charles and the team have achieved is astonishing.
Never before has each wine been so immediately, unmistakably itself with just a single breath over the rim.
The oak veil has been lifted, and the great beauty of the Pinot Noir grape is on full show.
This release feels like a turning point in Burgundian history. A new era beginning to unfold.
Will you taste it for yourself…
Tasting Notes
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Nuits-Saint-Georges 'Les Poisets' | 2022
These Nuits cuvées have a habit of being overlooked, quietly lost among the sheer breadth of Arnoux-Lachaux’s holdings. After tasting them together, Charles and I talked about just how often they’re passed by. That stops here.
Les Poisets sits right alongside the revered Les Saint-Georges, but it doesn’t borrow stature. It has its own voice. And in 2022, that voice is impossible to ignore.
The colour is vivid, alive. The nose is all fruit and momentum. Red and black fruits
collide, with cassis surging through the centre, sweet, intense, and utterly compelling. On the palate, the tannins are already soft, almost disarming, giving the wine an ease that belies its depth.
This is not a supporting act. Ignore it at your peril.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | NUITS-SAINT-GEORGES PREMIER CRU 'CLOS DES CORVÉES PAGETS' | 2022
This was the tenth wine of the tasting, and my note at the time says everything: “I’m running out of superlatives for how these smell.” The 2022s from Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux leave a mark, and this was a moment where that really landed.
The nose is intensely beautiful. Immediate, enveloping, almost immersive. Like burying your nose in a bowl of freshly picked blackcurrants. There’s depth and sweetness, but always a counterpoint of red fruit that keeps the wine lifted and alive.
On the palate, the step up to Premier Cru is unmistakable. There’s more structure here, more intent, but never at the expense of finesse. When the viticulture is this precise, there’s no need to lean on oak for shape. The tannins are present, confident, and beautifully resolved.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY 'CLOS DES DANGUERRINS' | 2022
This is only the second vintage where Clos des Danguerrins has been bottled on its own, separated from the main Chambolle cuvée. It’s also one of the earliest sites where Charles began experimenting with his viticultural approach, and it feels further along for it, more settled, more assured.
Planted at high density, around 11,000 to 12,000 vines per hectare, and terraced between 270 and 310 metres in altitude, the vineyard sits just a stone’s throw from Musigny. It’s not the first time a vigneron has quietly pointed me towards this corner of Chambolle and said, pay attention. They were right.
There’s a striking freshness and mineral drive from the outset. Dark cherry leads on the nose, before the palate opens into sublime alpine strawberry. A gentle note of black tea weaves through the wine, adding depth and quiet complexity. The tannins are beautifully placed, the texture refined, the whole impression effortlessly classy. Don’t mistake the elegance for a lack of concentration. It’s there, unmistakably so.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Vosne-Romaneé | 2022
Drawn from three perfectly placed, east-facing plots around the commune, this is Vosne-Romanée in unmistakable voice. Serve this blind to even a fledgling Burgundy lover and they’d find it in seconds.
Tasted in the cool calm of the domaine’s cellar, it begins with an almost shocking burst of strawberry. Nuclear in its intensity. Give it a minute. Let the glass warm. The wine shifts, unfurls, deepens. Blueberries begin to emerge, the transformation happening in real time. Imagine what a few years in bottle will do.
On the palate, the concentration is absolute. Undiluted. Like fruit cordial before water ever touches it. There’s power here, dark and savoury too, reminiscent of lightly roasted blackberries you might serve alongside venison loin. Structure is present, confident, perfectly judged, knitting everything together without ever getting in the way.
Dense. Delicious. And utterly Vosne.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Vosne-Romanée ‘Les Hautes Maizières’ | 2022
Perhaps the best-sited village plot in all of Vosne. Perfectly triangulated between Les Suchots, the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti holdings in Échézeaux, and the historic Clos de Vougeot. If location matters, this one shouts it.
This is always a muscular Vosne, a wine that doesn’t rush to reveal itself. It asks for patience. And for those willing to give it time, the rewards are profound. As a small aside, I opened the 2019 on New Year’s Eve 2025, and it was mind-numbingly brilliant.
The 2022 follows the same path. The nose is layered and deliberate: a flicker of spice, a hint of pepper, a dusting of liquorice, and a touch of violet woven through it all. There’s real detail here, and it rewards slow, attentive tasting.
On the palate, this is about depth and power rather than overt elegance. Rich, dark fruit dominates, delivered with authority, exactly as Charles says is typical of this vineyard. Structure is firm, the intent unmistakable.
Put this away for five years. Then revel in it.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru ‘Les Chaumes’ | 2022
Charles’ holding in Les Chaumes runs from the very top of the vineyard down to its base, sitting just below the iconic La Tâche. The vines here are around 65 years old, and they bring a natural finesse and grace to the wine.
The tannins are light and powdery, giving the wine an immediate charm. A gentle decant only helps it find its rhythm. There’s a clear mineral core running through the palate, balanced by fresh red fruits, with redcurrant quietly weaving its way into the mix.
On the nose, fresh rose petals lift everything, adding perfume and poise. This is Premier Cru Vosne at its most inviting. Elegant, detailed, and effortlessly delicious.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Clos de Vougeot ‘Quartier de Marei Haut’ Grand Cru | 2022
Clos de Vougeot is one of Burgundy’s great symbols, not just of place but of wine itself, with origins reaching back to 1164. Arnoux-Lachaux’s holding lies in Quartier des Marei Haut, just below the château, positioned high on the slope where drainage is excellent and the vineyard shows a very different side of itself.
This is a deeply intriguing expression of Clos de Vougeot. Rather than leaning into sheer tannic force, Charles has shaped a wine of balance and proportion. The tannins have a gentle chew, enough to frame the sweet fruit without ever dominating it. The nose is immediately inviting, exuding Parma violet and drawing you closer with each breath.
Despite the age of the vines, around 75 years, there’s a clear mineral line running through the wine, paired with just the right level of acidity to keep everything fresh and alive. Nothing feels heavy. Nothing feels forced.
Complete. Composed.
This is the kind of Clos de Vougeot that reminds you exactly why the monks chose this place all those centuries ago.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Echézeaux ‘Les Rouges’ Grand Cru | 2022
Drawn from three distinct parcels within Échézeaux, this is a wine built on contrast and balance. Les Rouges du Bas (0.15 ha) sits on extremely shallow soils, with little more than a skim of topsoil before hard limestone takes over, lending the wine its mineral spine and finesse. Échézeaux du Dessus (0.45 ha), among the best-situated sites in the appellation, brings harmony and poise, while a small parcel in Les Treux (0.09 ha), rooted in deeper clay, adds richness and breadth.
The colour in the glass is deep and inviting, but what follows is all elegance. The wine glides across the palate, weightless and assured, the three components working in perfect accord. A familiar Parma-violet note returns on the nose, suggesting sweetness, but the palate leans firmly mineral. Redcurrant and raspberry define the fruit profile, precise and lifted rather than opulent.
The finish is long, calm, and beautifully resolved. A Grand Cru that earns your attention.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru | 2022
One of the rarest cuvées in the Arnoux-Lachaux cellar, produced in minute quantities each year. Charles’ holding sits right on the border with the Grand Cru of Morey-Saint-Denis, and it seems to borrow some of that wild, untamed character from its neighbour.
The perfume is extraordinarily intricate and delicate. This is not a wine that leads with fruit. Instead, it unfolds slowly, drawing you in layer by layer, like a great women’s perfume. lingering on the nose. Turned earth, a touch of vanilla, something almost bittersweet that hints at blood orange. It’s captivating, and it rewards patience.
On the palate, the power is unmistakable, but it’s expressed through savoury depth rather than brightness. This isn’t fresh fruit in a bowl. It’s more like a Michelin-starred reduction to accompany duck, dark, glossy, enriched with fruit rather than defined by it. Serious, composed, and deeply complex.
Absolutely spectacular.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru ‘Les Grands Suchots’ | 2022
Les Suchots is bordered on three sides by some of the most legendary vineyards on earth: Richebourg, Romanée-Saint-Vivant, and Échézeaux. Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux is uniquely entitled to bottle their holding as Les Grand Suchots, a distinction earned by position rather than prestige. Their parcel sits at the very top of the vineyard, and the vines here are over 100 years old. A full century. It’s a humbling thing to stand among them.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru ‘Aux Reignots’ | 2022
Superbly positioned just beyond the vineyards of Romanée-Conti and La Romanée, Aux Reignots occupies the perfect mid-slope exposition. Year after year, it goes toe to toe with Romanée-Saint-Vivant at the tasting table. Premier Cru by classification, but unmistakably Grand Cru in everything but name.
The bouquet is formidable. If you’re another winemaker, it’s the kind of wine that must feel deeply inconvenient. For the rest of us, it’s pure pleasure. Fruit, yes. Flowers, yes. But there’s something more beneath it all. An earthy undertone, quietly grounding the perfume, drawing you in the way the opening lines of a great novel do. You want to keep reading. You have no choice.
On the palate, the wine leans into darker fruit. Think ripe, dark red cherry, mouth-filling and seamless. There’s real luxury here, not in weight, but in texture. Sensual. Delectable. Completely assured.
Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux | Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru | 2022
The Romanée-Saint-Vivant holdings at Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux are approaching their centenary, planted in 1926 and a youthful 97 years old in the 2022 vintage. The vineyard sits just below the monopole of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, on slightly deeper soils that rest above ancient Jurassic limestone formed some 175 million years ago. Romanée-Saint-Vivant itself carries a lineage that reaches back to the monks of the Saint-Vivant abbey in the 12th century, a continuity of viticulture that still feels quietly present in the glass.
We work directly with the Domaine, therefore all wines are available strictly on allocation. Currently we are allocating the 2021 vintage, with some back vintages of ’18 & ’19 just released from the domaine’s cellars.
Please submit your request below.
