Charles Lachaux started his micro-négoce because of Aligoté. On several occasions, he had blind tasted d’Auvenay’s Aligoté Sous Châtelet alongside serious premier and grand cru chardonnays. Sometimes it trounced the other whites; sometimes it was a least in the same league —always, it was up there.

The Arnoux family owns Aligoté and used to bottle it. But at some point it was deemed unworthy and the grapes were sold off to négociants. Charles wanted to vinify those grapes again. 

In addition to the Aligoté, the début for the Charles Lachaux label included five wines. Only the Aligoté is owned, and the fruit is purchased from friends with conscientious farming practices for the other wines. Incidentally, the label was designed by Charles’ wife Louise who is a graphic designer. The rose is for the couple’s eldest daughter Rose.

With one exception, there are no noteworthy differences in winemaking between the Charles Lachaux and Arnoux-Lachaux wines. The exception is ageing. The Charles Lachaux wines are bottled after a little less than a year as opposed to 18 months for the domaine wines. This difference does have an impact. The négoce wines are fruit-driven, caught before their stay in oak leaves noticeable patina —vins de soif. Of course, they’re still from Burgundy and can age. But the goal is immediate pleasure.

All the grapes are picked by the Lachaux team. All the wines, including the Aligoté, are pressed in a vertical press. Fermentations are with ambient yeasts. There are no additions of sulfur until after malo.

The reds are 100% whole cluster. Macerations are noteworthy for their brevity. In 2019, they range from 9 to 12 days. They are also noteworthy for their lack of extraction. All the reds in 2019 were punched down only twice by foot. There is a daily pump over. The reds were aged in older barrels with the exception of the Nuits Saint Georges 1er Cru les Boudots and the Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru les Suchots, each having one new Stockinger barrel, or 20% of the cuvées. Total sulfur at bottling ranges between 23 and 38ppm.

We remember telling William Kelley over lunch that we thought that with 2016, Charles had shot Arnoux-Lachaux straight into the very top tier of Burgundy. William chuckled and dismissed our hyperbole. He has since changed his mind. In the domaine’s vineyards, Charles has become the single most progressive vigneron in the region —no one had yet had the courage to try no till. In the winery, the crunch, precision, soul, and transparency of the wines, whether from the domaine or the négoce, is magical. - Paul Wasserman, Becky Wasserman and Co.

Photos from Paul Wasserman.

BOWLER E-Zine Issue 2 | Q1 2021: Regenerative Farming: Scratching at the Surface 

Bas Armagnac is a hilly and humid region located in the west in the Landes and in the Gers around Eauze. It is characterized by poor and acidic sandy-silty soils. To the west of the Gers and on part of the Landes, the sea left a Miocene formation called "sables fauves" and made up of fine quartz sands, colored by ferruginous elements. The Atlantic influence is predominant there.

Its eaux-de-vie are famous, especially to the west of the appellation in the Grand Bas Armagnac where the sables fauves outcrop: fruity, delicate, round, they are highly sought after by Armagnac lovers.

La Béroje, whose name means "the Pretty" in Gascon.

This very old agricultural estate was acquired by the Count of Rémond in the first half of the 19th century: crossed by the Ludon stream (current border between Gers and Landes) this vast property included meadows for livestock, beautiful forests and varied lands suitable for viticulture and cereals.

La Béroje is located in the heart of the black Armagnac: this old name evoked the vast oak forests, the sunken paths, the dense coppices and the dovecotes covered with ferns lurking at the edge of the woods. In 1854, it became Bas-Armagnac. The shady areas that still surround the vines promote greater acidity in the wine and a lower sugar content, which are precisely what makes it ideal for producing the best eaux-de-vie.

On the estate, complete control of the production cycle continues to be ensured: harvests, vinification, distillation, aging, bottling, marketing.

Armagnacs of Béroje are made from three white grape varieties : the oldest contain Folle Blanche, the "refinement grape variety", and it is the ancient Piquepoult that gives the eaux-de-vie a remarkable finesse characterized by floral scents and quince notes. This rather fragile grape variety must be replanted soon on well-ventilated land on the estate.

Baco and Ugni Blanc dominate: acidic and low-alcohol wines, they lend themselves wonderfully well to distillation; their blend is very interesting: Baco with its full and rich aromas gives a lot of roundness to the spirits, Ugni Blanc, more "neutral", allows the aromas from the wood to flourish.

The harvest takes place quite early , as soon as the grapes reach maturity (mid-September, early October): the wine thus has a low alcohol content which allows a better concentration of aromatic substances and a high acidity, essential for the natural conservation of the wine.

The pressing is done on site; in the cellar vats, the must produces a white wine of 8 to 10° which receives no treatment or addition:

This entirely natural process leads them to distill early a wine that is just settled but rich in light lees and perfectly healthy: distillation always takes place at La Béroje during the All Saints' Day period.

Distillation is carried out using a very old process, known since the Middle Ages in the Kingdom of France, and which has continued to be refined. It was in the middle of the 19th century that the Armagnac still was developed in its current form, a single-heat, continuous still made of pure copper: The fresh wine passes into the still where it is heated in a boiler over an open fire; the alcohol vapors, loaded with aromas, circulate in a refrigerated coil and condense, delivering perfectly transparent eau de vie.

As in the past, at Béroje, the spirits are distilled on site according to this Armagnac tradition which allows the finesse of the perfumes to be preserved, primary aromas from the vine and the terroir.

The arrival of the still and its lighting are an event that does not escape the neighbors: they come, at nightfall, to taste the new Armagnac coming out of the still.

This method of distillation, called simple or continuous, is one of the foundations of the specificity of Armagnac, distinguishing it from all other spirits such as Cognac.The spirit will gain in softness and mellowness after a long aging time but the great complexity of the aromas is preserved and will express itself over the years.

When they come out of the still, the spirits are 53° to 55°, they fill new or recent barrels

The choice of barrels plays a major role as does  the cooper: Mr. Bartholomo, provides them with barrels from the South-West for each new distillation. The choice of wood, the open-air drying of the staves (at least 3 years), the making of the staves and the burning of the interior walls of the barrel play a role in the coloring and aromatic complexity of the spirits

After 1 to 2 years, and the visual and olfactory appreciation of the cellar master, the Armagnac is transferred to older barrels to continue their slow maturation. The topping up of the "pieces", the blending on the same vintage, the regular oxygenation allows the eaux-de-vie to express all their personality.

At La Béroje, Armagnacs are given time to mature: it is after more than 20 years of aging that vintage Armagnacs are offered for sale.

The Château de Respide is one of the oldest wineries in the region, with records mentioning the vineyards and woods of Respide going back to 1630. The Chatin family was drawn to this very special place and purchased the winery in 2021. They have 85 hectares of vines in three main plots and there are woods, bushes, and streams separating the vineyard areas.

In the north, they have an 18 hectare plot named “Paparon”. It has sandy loam soils on top of a gravel and clay base. In some places, the erosion shows the pure gravel base called “graves” in French. They have Cabernet, Merlot, Semillon, and Sauvignon Blanc planted here. Southeast of the winery lies a 35 hectare plot named “Cueille” with an alluvial soil on a gravelly and clay base. Mostly Merolt and Cabernet are planted here, but there is also some Petit Verdot, Semillon, and Sauvignon Blanc. This terroir gives full bodied wines, with pronounced but delicate tannins and a salinity running throughout. The Callipyge Rouge comes from this site. And in the south west, they have a 25 hectare plot called “Boyrein”. It’s at 80 meters altitude and has two plateaus. The top plateau has gravel from the Garonne on top of clay and mostly Merlot is planted here. The lower plateau has a limestone soil on top of clay. Merlot planted here resembles right bank Bordeaux, powerful and robust. And Sauvignon Blanc planted here is complex and goes into the Callipyge Blanc.

Amelie Chatin is from Champagne and worked as an oenologist for Ruinart for nine years, then in Uruguay for four years. Their ultimate goal is to do everything to express these special terroirs. The winery has been certified sustainable HVE3 since 2017 and the Chatin’s want to make the winery carbon neutral by 2030. They are working with green cover, natural fertilization, and biodiversity preservation. In the cellar, they guide the wines to their best expression, using as little intervention as possible.

Much of the wine that comes under the name of Muscadet is indifferently made and destined for casual glasspours in Paris bistros or patio sipping. However, a small cadre of estates in the region is dedicated to good farming and quality winemaking. Château Guipière is a fresh face in that group making its coast-to-coast national debut in the US with Bowler.

Founded in 1842 and situated in Vallet, just southeast of Nantes where the Loire River spills into the Atlantic Ocean, Château Guipière is a 28ha estate focused on cultivating the two mainstay grapes of the region, the Melon de Bourgogne which is bottled under its much more well-known AOP Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine, and Gros Plant (a.k.a. Folle Blanche) a specialty of the region which attracts a small cult audience for being one of the most racy, high acid, minerally white wines in the world.

In 2015 the Château and its vineyards became the property of current owner Philippe Nevoux, supported by Stéphane Gouraud, his vineyard manager and cellarmaster. In the years since, this team has transformed the winery into a burgeoning fine wine estate. The major change was to pursue HVE3 Certification (Haute Valeur Environmentale or “High Environmental Value”). This includes commitments to biodiversity conservation, managed fertilizer use, eco-friendly plant protection strategies, and water resources management. Protecting and nourishing the estate’s heritage vines, some of them up to 60 years old, is not just a viticultural imperative but a genuinely ethical one in the 21st century.

UPDATE:   After 3 years of organic transition, 2024 will be the year of the Estate's first certified organic harvest.

Another impressive practice at the winery is their commitment to bottling single-vineyard cuvees, thereby shining a spotlight on the different terroirs of their property. Lined up and tasted comparatively, these wines are a revelation of how Muscadet—often perceived by outsiders as a homogenous region—can produce nuanced and deliciously different wines from its varying geologies.

Bowler has chosen to carry three of these single-vineyard Muscadets and the fabulously bright, quaffable Gros Plant whose stained-glass fish label is destined to pop up everywhere in US stores and restaurants. We could not be happier and more excited to start working with this wonderful new estate.