Burgundy is much more than just home to Joseph Cartron

Jean Cartron left Vendée in the west of France during the French Revolution to settle in Burgundy, at Argilly, a few kilometres from Nuits-Saint-Georges. He became a landowner after marrying a Burgundian lady. His grandson, Pierre Cartron, settled in Nuits-Saint-Georges in the early 1870s and it's in this town that, in 1882, his son, Joseph, established this business that still carries his name to this day. The company remains in Nuits-Saint-Georges, in the heart of Burgundy, the region that inspired the Cartron family's coat of arms.

The Joseph Cartron Company still buys 70% of its fruits in Burgundy, meaning the company can choose the exact time for the
harvest and work on the fruits at an optimum point of maturity. The use of these local fruit varieties, often with low yields (e.g. the Noir de Bourgogne Blackcurrant) favours the elaboration of typical Burgundian products such as:

• Crème de Cassis de Bourgogne, Joseph Cartron's flagship product
• Crème de Pêche de Vigne
• Crème de Framboise
• Crème de Cerise de Bourgogne
• Ratafia de Bourgogne
• Guignolet de Bourgogne
• Poire Williams des Monts de la Côte d'Or
• Marc de Bourgogne

In order to protect flavours specific to Burgundy, Joseph Cartron follows procedures comparable to that of the A.O.C. (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée). Particularly important is the cultivation of the Noir de Bourgogne variety of blackcurrants to which the company is so closely affiliated and a regional network was set up between the fruit producers and liqueur producers in the middle of the 19th century. Indeed, it was the Mayor of Burgundy, Chanoine Kir, who came up with and popularised the mixing of Crème de Cassis with Burgundy wine in early in the 20th century, a combination that's now known as Kir, after his name.