Noilly Prat

Joseph Noilly, a herbalist and wine and spice merchant based in Lyon, developed the original recipe for what became Noilly Prat vermouth in 1813, using white wines -- Picpoul and Clairette -- sourced from the Languedoc region, decades before the now-familiar Martini style of vermouth existed. He later opened a production facility and began exporting the vermouth. In 1850, the aging cellars were established in Marseillan, a coastal town in the Hérault, where Louis Noilly, Joseph's son, chose to age the vermouth in barrels exposed to the sun near the Mediterranean, deliberately reproducing the temperature swings vermouth had historically experienced during long sea voyages by boat to the Americas. In 1855, Louis Noilly and his brother-in-law Claudius Prat formally established the company that took the Noilly Prat name, relocating the business fully to Marseillan, where it has remained ever since, positioned between the Thau lagoon and the open sea. The cellars and barrel-aging process, largely unchanged in concept since the nineteenth century, continue to define the house style, and the site in Marseillan still functions as both a working production facility and a visitable heritage site for wine tourism.