Château des Jacques is a Beaujolais wine estate and the oldest cru of the Moulin-à-Vent appellation. The vineyard covers 69 hectares on the Crus Moulin-à-Vent, Morgon, Fleurie and Beaujolais Blanc and is planted only with Gamay noir with white juice, descended from the Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc grape varieties, for the reds and Chardonnay for the whites. The Moulin-à-Vent cru represents about 50% of the vineyard with the famous Clos de Rochegrès, Clos du Grand Carquelin, Les Thorins, La Roche, Champ de Cour, Les Vérillats, La Rochelle and Les Caves. White Beaujolais represents about 15% of the vineyard.
The current residence of the estate is located at "Les Jacques" in Romanèche-Thorins since 1679 and rests on old cellars. The Sornay family turned it into a wine trading house from 1843. The history of Château des Jacques dates back to the beginning of the 20th century with Amédée Rousseau, a visionary entrepreneur and winemaker. In 1924, the wine production area around the hamlet of Les Thorins officially became the Moulin-à-Vent appellation and for three years, Amédée Rousseau selected and acquired vines on the best terroirs of the appellation from more than sixty winegrowers. From the beginning, he adopted manual harvesting, destemming of the grapes, vinification and long ageing and bottling of plot selections on the property, when a large majority of Beaujolais winegrowers still entrusted their harvest to the merchants.
The Thorin family succeeded Amédée Rousseau and defended this same vision, maintaining their principles and resisting the advent of new practices in the 1950s, with the advent of Beaujolais Nouveau and carbonic maceration. In 1996, Maison Louis Jadot in Burgundy acquired Château des Jacques, preserving the identity of the estate and committing to responsible environmental practices.
