In the 1960s a Polish emigre named Witold Domanski controlled the fine Burgundy import business in South Africa. He was a family friend and would arrive for dinner armed with magnums – dating back to the 1940s - from a grand cru estate in Morey St Denis called Clos des Lambrays and handfuls of bottles of truly fabulous wines from Louis Jadot.
I guess he wound down the business in the 1980s, and I think he died sometime in the 1990s. Over time I began importing many of the great wines he had previously represented. The producer which took the longest to secure (and with which we have subsequently stayed the longest) was Louis Jadot. Domanski dealt with Andre Gagey at Jadot. Andre’s son Pierre-Henry took over the running of the company in the late 1980s and I began discussions with him in the early 2000s. Now I’ve been importing his wines for 20 years. Pierre-Henry is still active as President while his son Thibault is clearly being groomed to become the third generation in charge of the venerable House.
As with most of our Burgundy business, our focus is on single estate wines. Jadot’s properties are partly owned by the heirs of the Jadot family, partly owned by the company itself, and partly owned by the Gageys – who began acquiring vineyards in Burgundy when suitable sites came onto the market. They avoided any conflict of interest by contracting the harvest to the house.
Jadot’s main winery – a few kilometres north of the town of Beaune – has oak fermentation vats situated at the periphery of a circular fermentation cellar. Below this level there are several chambers for barrel-ageing the wines. When we were there in May 2022 – so after the good but very small 2021 vintage – much of the space was empty.
A long relationship built on years of engagement counts for a great deal in Burgundy. Despite the stock shortage the folk at Jadot dug around to find us some wines with a little bottle age. The volumes they could make available are small, but the quality is exceptional. Below you will find the list of what we were able to wheedle out of them. Most of the Premier and Grand Crus are irreplaceable – at least in the vintages we have secured. The village wines are exceptional – affordable and delicious. The Ladoix – from a vineyard replanted about 12 years ago – served to remind me of my original discovery – many years ago – of the tiny appellation, situated adjacent to the hill of Corton and a candidate (in my view) for the best value village white Burgundy.
