The wine trading house "Albert Bichot" was founded in Meursault in 1831 by Bernard Bichot (1750-1850). His son Hyppolyte Bichot (1831-1908) donated the Volnay Cuvée Blondeau vineyard to the Hospices de Beaune, whose wines are still auctioned today. In the third generation, Albert Bichot I. (1870-1952) increased the estate by acquiring several small merchant houses. He moved the cellars and the company headquarters from Meursault to Beaune. The company subsequently developed into the largest exporter of Burgundy wines. Today it is run by the fifth generation, Albéric Bichot (born 1964). The company acts as a négociant éleveur, which means that it buys grapes from contract winemakers and markets the wines vinified from them under its own name. Furthermore, Bichot also acts as a vigneron (winegrower) and owns six renowned vineyards in Burgundy with a total of 104 hectares of vineyards:
The vineyards are cultivated in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. Four vineyards are certified organic. The white wines are fermented chilled in stainless steel tanks for three weeks to preserve the fruitiness and terroir typicity. For the red wines, the intact grapes are macerated for three weeks. Barrels from Allier and Tronçais are used for ageing in barriques. The large product range includes wines from many famous Burgundian communes with renowned Grands Crus (after the commune in brackets) and Premiers Crus. These are, for example, Aloxe-Corton (Les Languettes, Clos des Maréchaudes, Corton-Charlemagne), Chablis (Les Blanchots, Bougros, Les Clos, La Moutonne, Les Preuses, Les Vaudésirs), Chambolle-Musigny, Flagey-Echézeaux (Echézeaux, Grands Echézeaux), Gevrey-Chambertin (Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin, Latricières-Chambertin), Mercurey, Meursault, Monthélie, Morey-Saint-Denis, Montrachet (Bâtard-Montrachet, Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet, Montrachet), Moulin-à-Vent, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Pommard, Volnay, Vosne-Romanée(Richebourg, Romanée-Saint-Vivant) and Vougeot(Clos de Vougeot).
Furthermore, wines from the regional Burgundian appellations Beaujolais, Bourgogne, Côte de Beaune-Villages, Côte Chalonnaise and Côte de Nuits-Villages are produced and marketed. Last but not least, there are also wines from the Languedoc, Provence and Rhône wine-growing regions. These are, for example, the appellations Côtes du Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Languedoc. The wines are exported to over 100 countries on all continents worldwide.
