Domaine de Béquignol
Domaine de Béquignol is a family chocolate maker in Carlux, in the Périgord Noir of the Dordogne, that has spent more than fifty years on one idea: the walnut of the Périgord, toasted, lightly caramelized and enrobed in chocolate. Everything it sells is made on the premises, from father to daughter, and Clipperton imports its signature chocolate-covered walnuts.
The house
Claude Ginèbre founded the domaine in 1972 on his family's land at Carlux, a village in the Périgord Noir. The first products were not chocolates but spirits, built around the ingredient that defines the region: the walnut. Chocolate followed in 1979, and with it the confection that made the house's name, a walnut kernel toasted, caramelized and coated in chocolate. In 1984 the domaine's Nogaillou was named best chocolate in France, and in 1997 its Petite Périgord Gold won the Intersuc Blue Ribbon.
In 2016 Claude's daughter Marion Ginèbre took over the running of the business, and the house now describes itself simply as chocolatiers from father to daughter. In 2024 it received a special mention from the jury of the Saveurs Nouvelle-Aquitaine competition, and it has passed its fiftieth anniversary still in the family and still on the same land.
The method is the point. Each walnut kernel is toasted and lightly caramelized before it meets the chocolate, a step the house considers essential to bring out the nut's full aroma; the chocolate itself is made with pure cocoa butter, without palm oil, and the range is naturally gluten-free and suitable for vegans. Nothing is bought in finished: the whole process, from the raw kernel to the box, happens in the workshop at Carlux.
What they make
The house's range at home runs to spirits, chocolate bars and a family of walnut-based confections. Clipperton carries the one that says everything about the domaine: the Chocolate Covered Walnuts, an 80 g box of walnuts caramelized, enrobed in dark chocolate and dusted with cocoa. Crunch, bittersweet depth and a little sweetness in one bite, to eat on their own, with coffee, or beside a dessert.
- Chocolate Covered Walnuts, 80 g box
Find it in the Domaine de Béquignol collection.
Why Clipperton chose them
Clipperton is a family importer, and we have a soft spot for houses that do one thing and refuse to do it badly. The Périgord is walnut country, and a good chocolate-covered walnut is harder to make than it looks: the kernel has to be fresh, toasted just enough, caramelized without turning bitter, and then coated in chocolate worthy of it. A father-and-daughter house founded in Carlux in 1972 does exactly that. We buy from them directly and bring the result to Canada and the United States.
