Arnoux Lachaux Les Chaumes 2018 750mL

The 2018 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Chaumes wafts from the glass with an inviting bouquet of peonies, sweet red berries, orange rind, raw cocoa and spices. Medium to full-bodied, pretty and expressive, the wine is lively and charming on the palate, with a delicate core of perfumed fruit and melting tannins, concluding with a long and precise finish. As I wrote last year, the thoughtful, intelligent and increasingly self-assured Charles Lachaux seems to gain in authority each time I taste with him, and my most recent visit prompted the same reflection. As readers will know by now, in the cuverie, wines that were once heavily extracted and lavishly oaked are now gently macerated, with significant percentages of whole clusters, and matured in mostly used barrels. In the vineyard, the evolution has been just as dramatic. The vines' canopies are now rolled, emulating the practice of Domaine Leroy, and a new parcel in Aux Reignots has been planted at a density of fully 20,000 vines per hectare. That's hugely labor-intensive, yet it appears to be paying off, as Lachaux is able to achieve a concentration in the vineyard that permits the most gentle of extraction in the cuverie. - Robert Parker (WK), tasted (2/2020)