Champagne Henri Giraud: serious about oak

In 2005, wine critic Robert Parker famously described Ay-based Henri Giraud as possibly ‘the finest Champagne house virtually no one has ever heard of’. The family has been making wine in the region since 1625, but only started bottling wine under the family name under the current, 12th-generation owner Claude Giraud.

Production volumes are very small, especially for the flagship Argönne vintage cuvée, which saw only around 7,000 bottles produced in the latest 2013 release.

The house is known for carrying out fermentation and ageing of its base wines in oak barrels (apart from the Dame-Jane rosé, which is vinified in 525-litre sandstone amphorae, to accentuate the fruit).

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Locally sourced oak

Claude Giraud is passionate about sourcing oak from the Argonne forest, just 70km from the estate. At a tasting of the range in London, which included the newly released MV17, sales director Stéphane Barlerin explained that the oak trees in the Argonne grow very slowly due to the rare, rugged, porous and free-draining gaize soils found there – outside of the Argonne forest, the sedimentary rock and sandstone gaize soils are found in only one other place in the world, in Central Asia. The soils give a fine grain to the oak that results in barrels which don’t impart an overly oaky flavour.

There’s still a terroir influence discernible from the oak though, insists the house, which has identified 10 terroirs in the forest. Two key terroirs used for the barrel manufacture are Châtrices, which gives sharpness, high acidity and graphite notes to the wine; and La Chalade, which bestows a rounder, more supple and generous character.

Cellarmaster Sébastian Le Golvet identifies and buys the trees he wants to use, and has the wood sent to local cooperages to be fashioned into 228-litre (Burgundy sized) barrels. ‘The aim of our winemaking,’ explains Barlerin, ‘is the conjunction of the two terroirs: Ay (chalk, limestone based) and Argonne (gaize, sandstone based).

A replanting program ensures that trees are replaced, and going forward the Champagne house will be replanting 30,000 trees every year. The barrels are toasted for a long time at a low temperature, and are used for six years on average.

Perpetual reserve

Each Champagne features wine drawn from its own perpetual reserve, adding further to the complexity of the final wine. The perpetual reserves were started in 1990 and are replenished by 20% every year. They are stored in steel-lined concrete tanks in underground cellars beneath the Marne river, to ensure a naturally consistent year-round temperature of 11˚C, and minimum movement, so that the energy within the wine is retained.

The dosage for all wines is around 6g/litre, but the house prefers not to talk about it. ‘It’s like seasoning,’ explains Barlerin, ‘and the exact level will depend on the mood of the cellarmaster – he may use different dosages for different disgorgements, and so we don’t want the level to be set in stone.’

The range

Most of the Henri Giraud wines are Pinot Noir dominant, unsurprisingly given the location in Ay. Esprit Nature NV is the entry-level cuvée, then the house produces a non-vintage blanc de blanc (Blanc de Craie) and a non-vintage blanc de noirs (Hommage au Pinot Noir). There’s the Dame-Jane rosé, vinified in amphora, the multi-vintage wine (currently MV17), and then Argonne, the house’s top prestige cuvée, and Argonne rosé, vinified in oak.

The wines are imported to the UK by New Generation Wines.

See tasting notes and scores for Champagne Henri Giraud current releases:

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