| Founded: | 1924 |
| Headquarters: | Tain L’Hermitage, France |
| Style: | definitional Classic |
| Characteristics: | trademark black-fruited profiles often of bracing citric or sweetly dried fruit intensity caused by deep ferment cycles & a preference for wetter beans |
| Ferment: | long |
| Roast: | feather weight (other end of the spectrum & diametrically opposite to Pralus) |
| Conche: | very round & smooth without stripping acidity |
| Impact: | Vaunted house, & then some, of self-importance. Forerunner to the global premium chocolate movement with the release of Guanaja in the 1980s that heralded the 3rd wave in Western chocolate history by drafting off the lead of all-time Tour de France chocolate champ Bonnat (who earlier christened the notion of named-origin cacáos), then borrowed Grand Cru & Vintage from wine viniculture & applied them to chocolate. No longer best in the world but across-the-board, top-to-bottom, still among the most consistent performers. |
