Valrhona is a French premium chocolate manufacturer based in the small town of Tain-l'Hermitage in Hermitage, a wine-growing district near Lyon.
[2][3] The company was founded in 1922[4] by a French pastry chef, Albéric Guironnet, from the Rhône valley and has five subsidiaries and 60 local distributors across the globe.
[5] The company also maintains the École du Grand Chocolat, a school for professional chefs with a focus on chocolate-based dishes and pastries.
[citation needed] Valrhona focuses mainly on high-grade luxury chocolate marketed for commercial use by chefs as well as for private consumption.
Valrhona produces vintage chocolate made from beans of a single year's harvest from a specific plantation, primarily the Grand Crus[8] which is grown in South America, Oceania and the Caribbean.