Maison Lejay Lagoute

What you will see

The guided visit takes you inside the site where the liqueur is made, to learn the secrets of how it is produced. The house presents the tour as both instructive and gourmet, a chance to understand a product closely tied to Dijon. Afterwards, Lejay Lagoute products are sold at its shop, the Chocolaterie de Bourgogne on rue de Cluj, and in other Dijon shops.

History

Crème de cassis is made by steeping Burgundy blackcurrants in alcohol with added sugar. Its modern recipe appeared in Dijon in 1841, when the Dijon café owner Auguste-Denis Lagoute spent three years perfecting a formula that could be produced on an industrial scale. Several Dijon houses then shared the trade, among them Lejay-Lagoute, L'Héritier-Guyot, Gabriel Boudier and Briottet. Lejay Lagoute still makes its liqueur in Dijon today, with a recipe it says is unchanged since 1841.

Before the liqueur, Burgundy growers often planted blackcurrant bushes at the ends of their vine rows to make ratafia, a homemade cordial, the ancestor of the liqueur. Crème de cassis is the essential ingredient of the kir, usually mixed with Bourgogne Aligoté. The drink is named after Félix Kir, mayor of Dijon from 1945 to 1968, who habitually served it to visiting delegations.