Louis Jadot

The Louis Jadot winery, located in the walled town of Beaune, has been doing much the same thing for over 160 years: acquiring the finest vineyards it can find, carefully selecting grapes from trusted growers, and striving to interfere as little as possible with the wine’s maturation process. It is one of Burgundy’s largest producers, as well as one of the most consistent.

History

The Jadot family moved from Belgium to Beaune in 1794 and soon entered the wine trade. Their first vineyard acquisition was the Clos des Ursules, a walled plot of 2.15 hectares in Beaune, which came into the family’s ownership in 1826. Louis Henri Denis Jado officially founded the merchant house in 1859, buying an established firm called Lemaire-Fouleux and renaming it after himself. His son, Louis Baptiste, expanded the export business and reinvested the profits in the acquisition of additional Premier and Grand Cru vineyards.

The most significant turning point in the company’s modern history came in 1962, when Louis Auguste Jadot, the founder’s grandson, died without leaving any heirs. His manager, André Gage, took over as managing director and kept the company on course. In 1970, Gage hired a young oenologist named Jacques Lardier, who subsequently oversaw winemaking at Jadot for 42 years and became one of the most respected figures in Burgundy. In 1985, the commercial business was acquired by Kobrand, which had been the house’s importer in the US since 1945, although management remained with the Gage family. Pierre-Henri Gage served as president until 2022, when his son Thibault took over as managing director. Frédéric Barnière, who joined the company in 2010 and worked alongside Lardier, has been technical director since 2013.

Vineyards

Louis Jadot operates in two capacities: as a domaine, i.e. as a vineyard owner, and as a négociant, purchasing grapes or wine from winegrowers across Burgundy. The estate’s own vineyards cover 154 hectares, located in the Côte de Beane, Côte de Nuits, Mâcon and Beaujolais, including plots in some of Burgundy’s most famous Grand Cru vineyards: Musigny, Echezeaux, Chapelle-Chambertin and Clos de Vougeot, amongst others. The house’s headquarters and oldest cellars are located in Beaune itself, including part of the Couvent des Jacobins, a former Dominican monastery built in 1477. In 1996, Jadot also opened its own cooperage, Cadus, in partnership with Tonnellerie Vicard, to supply barrels made to its own specifications.

Terroir

The Côte d’Or, Burgundy’s ‘golden slope’, is a narrow strip of hills facing east and south-east, stretching for around 50 kilometres from Dijon to Santenay. The soils are a mosaic of limestone, clay and marl, and their exact proportions vary every few hundred metres, which explains the very different flavour profiles of wines from neighbouring villages or even neighbouring plots within a single village. This is the essence of Burgundy, and it is precisely this that the Jadot range of wines, covering around 150 different appellations, is designed to showcase.

Grape varieties

The vast majority of Jadot’s wines are made from Pinot Noir for reds and Chardonnay for whites, the two grape varieties that define Burgundy. In Beaujolais, where Jadot owns Château des Jacques in the Moulin-à-Vent appellation, the Gamay variety is used. In Mâcon, Chardonnay once again dominates, including the vintage from Domaine Ferret in Fuisse.

Winemaking

The philosophy is one of conscious non-intervention. Where possible, Jadot uses wild yeasts for fermentation, employs extended maceration for red wines and restricts the use of new oak, adjusting the proportion of new barrels according to the character of each vintage rather than following a fixed formula. The target is to let the terroir express itself. For ‘village’ level wines, Jadot also practises what is known as ‘replis’, adding wine from higher-tier appellations to the blend to enhance quality, an approach that is costly but effective. The house’s winemakers say they ‘listen to the vintage’, meaning that each year requires slightly different decisions, but the core method remains the same.

Wines

The range extends from entry-level ‘Bourgogne’ and ‘Beaujolais-Villages’ wines to some of Burgundy’s most prestigious ‘Grand Crus’.

‘Bon Clos de l’Ursule’, the family’s oldest estate, remains the benchmark ‘Premier Cru’. At the top end, wines such as ‘Musigny’, ‘Chambertin’ and ‘Corton-Charlemagne’ represent the pinnacle of the house’s craftsmanship.

White wines, particularly from the Côte de Beaune and Mâconnais, are just as important to the range as the reds. With over 150 appellations in its portfolio, Jadot offers wines in virtually every price bracket, which is one of the reasons why it remains one of Burgundy’s most recognisable brands worldwide.