Maison Louis Jadot was founded in 1859 by the man whose name it bears, M. Louis Henry Denis Jadot. A young man of Belgian ancestry whose family had settled in Beaune near the turn of the century, Louis Henry Denis Jadot developed an early interest in the wines of Burgundy. In 1794, the first family members to arrive in France purchased half of the extraordinary grand cru vineyard of Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles; later, 1826, Louis Henry's father acquired the Clos des Ursules vineyard, in the premier cru of Vignes-Franches in the commune of Beaune, which has remained a solely-owned holding of the Jadot family ever since. Upon his father's death, Louis Henry's uncle inherited these and a few other vineyard holdings. Under his uncle's auspices, the young Louis Henry greatly broadened his experience, first in the cellars, in the evaluation of wines; and then in the vineyards, in the study of viticulture.

As Louis Henry travelled he acquired a faithful clientele and in 1859 purchased the respected négociant firm of Lemaire-Fouleux. He gave the firm his name, restructured its operations, and began to expand its business in the northern French and traditional Burgundian export markets. Belgium, once a province of the Duchy of Burgundy and historically the preëminent market for its wines, was, as the Jadot family's ancestral home, of particular interest to Louis Jadot, and the Jadot name began to gain renown. As Maison Louis Jadot grew, its vineyard holdings expanded through the purchase of parcels in Beaune Theurons and Beaune Clos des Couchereaux.

After the death of Louis Henry Denis Jadot, his son, Louis Baptiste Jadot, enthusiastically carried on the work his father had begun. He expanded his export markets as well as his clientele in France, reinvesting his profits in the future acquisition of vineyards. He judiciously made purchases in some of the finest and most famous grand- and premier-cru vineyards of the Côte d'Or, among them two exceptional, adjacent parcels in the Corton-Charlemagne and Corton-Pougets vineyards, acquired in the same transaction in 1914.

In 1939, Louis Baptiste Jadot died and left control of the firm to his eldest son, Louis Auguste Jadot, who had assisted in the direction of the business under his father since 1931. He opened and greatly developed the new export market of the United States, as well as those of Great Britain, Holland, South America and New Zealand.

In 1954, André Gagey joined Maison Louis Jadot as assistant to Louis Auguste Jadot. Graduated from the College of Jesuits of Dole in 1941, M. Gagey pursued further studies, in 1942 and 1943, at the University of Commerce and Administration of Enterprise in Dijon prior to his marriage to Marie-Hélène Tourlière in 1947. Mlle. Tourlière was daughter of a respected Beaunois family involved since the early 1800s in the Burgundian wine trade and proprietors of various vineyard parcels. André Gagey's first position was with her father's firm, and until joining Maison Louis Jadot, he gained extensive experience in the viticultural and administrative aspects of the négociant business. Louis Auguste Jadot died in 1962. His only son, Louis-Alain, killed in an automobile accident at the age of twenty-three, left him survived only by his wife. Thus, under Mme. Jadot's ownership and direction, André Gagey was appointed Managing Director of the firm, with full responsibility for its operations. As did his mentor, M. Gagey insisted upon a policy of uncompromising quality in Jadot's portfolio of wines, and the respect and reputation Maison Louis Jadot enjoys today is the reward of that integrity.

As Managing Director, M. Gagey was for nearly three decades responsible for the final decisions over selection and purchase of all grapes and wines bottled under the Jadot label, as well as the care and maintenance of the vineyards within the Jadot estate. His legendary palate is not only a talent of years of experience, but also of natural aptitude. In 1970, aware that Maison Louis Jadot's future growth lay in its increasing role as owner-producer, Mr. Gagey engaged Jacques Lardière, a brilliant young oenologist, as his assistant and eventual technical director. M. Lardière is today acknowledged as one of Burgundy's, finest winemakers, an artist with the reins of nature in one hand and those of technology in the other. Mlle. Christine Botton, his assisting oenologist, follows in his footsteps. In 1984, André Gagey's son, Pierre-Henry Gagey, joined the firm with a strong background in business administration and management and an inherited knowledge of wines. In 1991, he assumed the position of President as his father reduced his own role to one of elder counsel.

In February of 1985, the négociant firm of Maison Louis Jadot was purchased by the owners of Kobrand Corporation, sole United States importer of Jadot Burgundies since 1945. Under an enterprising long-term investment plan designed to fully develop the extraordinary potential of Maison Louis Jadot, the holdings of Domaines Clair Daü, an exceptional collection of grands and premiers cru vineyards in the Côte de Nuits, were purchased in 1986, adding approximately thirty-five acres to the forth-five already owned by Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. In addition to acquisition, Jadot pursued long-term contracts over control of vineyards. One of the most prestigious of these was concluded in late 1986 with the Domaine du Duc de Magenta, and brought over thirty acres of superb vineyards into Jadot's production. The premiers crus of "Clos de la Chapelle" in Chassagne-Montrachet, a monopole planted in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and the "Clos de la Garenne" in Puligny-Montrachet, planted entirely in Chardonnay, are bottled under an annotated Duc de Magenta label indicating Maison Louis Jadot as éleveur and producer.

Again in 1989, the house acquired just over ten acres from Domaines Champy, itself established in 1720 and the oldest Burgundian firm in operation at that time. In 1993, a vineyard first purchased and planted by André Gagey's grandfather in the 1860s which he later sold was brought into the Jadot Domaines: the twenty-acre Clos de Malte vineyard in Santenay, a superb amphitheater planted both in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Following the retirement of André Gagey, vineyards in his family's holdings, including parcels situated in the grand cru of Clos Saint-Denis and the premiers crus of Chambolle-Musigny Les Baudes, Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Boudots, Beaune Cent-Vignes and Beaune-Grèves "Le Clos Blanc," were incorporated into the Jadot portfolio as long-term contracts under the "Domaine André Gagey" annotation. And again in 1995, parcels totalling just under five acres were purchased in the grands crus of Les Echézeaux and Corton Les Grèves and Savigny-Lès-Beaune Les Vergelesses, Les Lavières and Les Narbantons. This policy of acquisition and long-term contract will be perpetuated as exceptional vineyard sites become available for purchase or management. Including vineyards under long-term contract, Jadot controls nearly one hundred fifty acres of superb vineyards throughout the Côte d'Or and vinifies nearly one hundred percent of every great red and white Burgundy which bears its label.

The supply agreements through which Jadot sources its non-domaine wines are collaborative partnerships between house and grower oriented solely toward quality. Jadot makes its standards clear to its growers, and lends advice when necessary. No binding contracts exist; neither is under obligation to transact with the other, for reasons of quality on Jadot's part or for reasons of price on the growers'. Yet Maison Louis Jadot's policy, if costly, of buying grapes at the price of finished wine, provides the grower a financial advantage with less effort, and ensures Jadot a degree of continuity of supply as well as control over the fruit at the very earliest stage of its transformation into wine.

Maison Louis Jadot's principles of vinification balance tradition and technology, and focus on the purest expression of the "terroir," or qualities unique to the microclimate, through the medium of the vine. With rare exception, Burgundies are single-varietal wines, produced from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Gamay Noir; their singularity is derived from an extraordinarily refined perception and elicitation of the subtle differences among different terroirs. It is Jadot's fundamental conviction that the expression of each wine's origin and typicity resides in interfering with nature as little as possible.

White grapes are pressed immediately upon arrival at the cellar and fermented in 228-litre casks used for the same wine vintage to vintage. Depending on the ripeness and natural acidity of the fruit, alcoholic fermentation will be followed by a malolactic fermentation of from ten to sixty percent of the lot, both processes taking from two to six months. The wines are given a "bâtonnage," whereby the lees are stirred into the must, once or twice a week for a few months during the aging process.

The quality of the vintage and the greatness of the cru determine the length of time the wine will spend in oak as well as the percentage of new oak, if any, to which it will be exposed; typically, aging lasts from twelve to twenty months in no more than thirty percent new wood. A skim milk fining and, rarely, a light filtration, preceded bottling.

Red grapes are destemmed and crushed and allowed to macerate for up to a week with the skins to draw forth color and extract. Fermentation on the skins, again in casks used for the same wine vintage to vintage, takes place over twenty to thirty days at temperature several degrees above what most producers consider prudent, but which extracts an extra measure of color, depth and concentration in the wine. The must is "pigé," or agitated, but not pumped over, twice daily; this retains a higher degree of oxygen to nourish the yeasts and lengthens the fermentation. In some vintages, malolactic fermentation is suspended for a period of a few months to fix the color and aromas. After a period of eighteen to twenty-two months' aging in oak, again with never more than thirty percent new casks, the final blend is assembled and bottled. Red wines receive neither fining nor filtration.

As a matter of policy, only indigenous yeasts resident on the fruit and in the environment are used in fermentation, and all wines undergo only a single racking. Maison Louis Jadot places great importance on the restrained use of new oak in the aging process, both for red and white wines. Time in cask and percentage of new oak is dictated differently by each vintage. In keeping with its non-interventionist philosophy, Jadot considers that very great vintages, complete and harmonious by themselves, require minimum contact with new oak. In lesser vintages, tannic structure and fatness are enhanced by a more assertive use of new oak. The type of oak is confined the subtle Nevers, Allier, Tronçais and Vosges varieties. These support and enhance the delicate aromatic and organoleptic nuances of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay rather than dominating the spectrum of characteristics in the wine. Once bottled, Jadot's wines are released four to six months later than those of most producers in order to set the new arrivals on the proper path toward maturity.

For each wine it produces, Maison Louis Jadot assembles a single blend from the cuvées it has selected in that vintage to yield a wine consistent from the first bottle to the last. From among the wines purchased from each grower, a selection eliminates cuvées of lesser quality. As a further, though expensive, assurance of quality for its village level Côte d'Or and Beaujolais and Mâconnais wines, Jadot practices a "réplis," in which wines of a higher appellation are incorporated into a wine bearing the appellation below them. Thus, Jadot's Gevrey-Chambertin will customarily contain a percentage of wines from various premier crus of that village, and Jadot Beaujolais-Villages may be enhanced by blending with a significant proportion of wines from different crus of the Beaujolais.

Maison Louis Jadot's headquarters are located in the heart of Beaune. The most beautiful of its three cellars, used for storage of older-vintage wines and convivial gatherings, is situated in the Couvent des Jacobins, built in 1477 and once a convent of the patron Saint Dominique, founder of the Dominican order. It was acquired by the Tourlière family in 1802, and has been used by Maison Louis Jadot since 1954. The most recent cellar, on the outskirts of Beaune, doubled production and storage capacity as of mid-1986, and is one of the most technologically advanced facilities in France.