Maison Louis Max

History

Maison Louis Max was founded in 1859 by Yevgeny Louis Max, son of a wine trader from Georgia, Russia.

According to family tradition,Yevgeny's father had as a young man fought in the army of the Czar, and after Napoleon's defeat in 1815, visited the vineyards of Burgundy before returning home. His tales of adventure, in France and in particular Burgundy, fired his son's imagination to such an extent that he grew determined that when an adult, he too would see those mythical vineyards.

Arriving in Beaune with some family knowledge of wine and lots of youthful enthusiasm, he set up his own trading company. Since that time, four generations of Max's have succeeded the founder : Theodore, Louis, Marcel and - since 1976- Laurent the current president.

Vineyards and Vinification

Maison Louis Max is a producer of wines from its own vineyards as well as a Négociant-Eleveur, having bought the beautiful Domaine de la Marche estate in Mercurey, with 67 acres of prime vineyard sites in the Mercurey and Mercurey 1er Cru appelations. The company also has contracts with wine growers totalling some 250 acres meticulously chosen in some of the best appelations of Chablis, Nuits St. Georges, Meursault, Clos de Vougeot, Volnay and Beaune.

Grown using minimal chemical treatments, the vines are green pruned to give the low yields necessary for top quality Burgundy. Hand picked at optimum ripeness, the grapes are then quickly taken to the winery in Nuits St. Georges where the winemaking process begins under the control of Chief Oenologist Brigitte Putzu and her team. Upon arrival the grapes are rigorously selected by hand and any substandard fruit is rejected. Then after crushing and 100% de-stemming the must enters an assortment of stainless steel fermenting vats, all of different sizes reflecting the different size of each vineyard.

After a slow, temperature controlled fermentation and maceration of between twelve and twenty four days, the wines are gravity fed into a combination of new and used oak barriques in the cellars below, which have a capacity of around 3000 barrels. There in the cool depths the wines rest for between twelve and eighteen months before bottling. Then they remain in the cellar before labelling and shipment. Louis Max will have an average stock of around one million bottles in the cellars.

Markets and Customers

Having won countless medals, diplomas and commendations from critics and at wine competitions throughout the world, it is no surprise that the wines of Louis Max are highly sought after. Particularly so considering the lengths the company has always gone to satisfy its customers. Wine was delivered to an important British customer by plane as early as 1911, and Louis Max wines were on board The Titanic on her tragic maiden voyage of 1912.

Louis Max wines have been served at the Elysée Palace and Hôtel Matignon, for French Heads of State and their guests, and today are stocked by many of the very best hotels and restaurants in France and throughout the world, not to mention the finest shops and delicatessens. Louis Max wines can also be enjoyed when travelling with the worlds best airlines,where the quality and consistency of in -flight wines is taken very seriously.

Wines

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