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The December 2022 Auction: Part 1

Auction # 739 | View Auction Schedule and Details
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Auction Ends: 12/1/2022 6:00:00 PM PDT

Lot #172. Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanée 2018

Description: Consists of 1 Bottle, 0.75L
Score: 91 WA.
"At a modest 13.2%, the 2018 Vosne-Romanée Village is actually Lachaux's ripest wine this year, and it is showing brilliantly, unfurling with aromas of sweet wild berries, plums, orange rind, rose petals, woodsmoke and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and concentrated, it's deep and lively, with juicy acids and powdery structuring tannins. 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. In 2018, he began his harvest on September 3 and reports modest yields between 25 and 28 hectoliters per hectare. Cuvaisons were notably short, between eight to 10 days, and the highest alcoholic degree attained was a mere 13.2%. I wrote last year that this is an immensely promising domaine, with one of the brightest futures ahead of any in Burgundy, and Lachaux has vindicated my confidence by producing some of the very finest wines of the 2018 vintage. As for my counsel for readers to take notice, however, it may already be too late for that, as the soaring prices at which these wines now trade will soon put many of Lachaux's bottlings out of reach of all but the most well-heeled wine lovers." William Kelley, Wine Advocate Interim, Feb 2020
Provenance: The Corral Cellar
Lot Location: Orange County
Estimate: $650

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