First taste: Henri Giraud new releases

It is a special feat to be one of the oldest Champagne houses and yet be known for its creativity and dynamism. This is the case with Maison Henri Giraud, whose origins go back to 1625. Its current head is Claude Giraud, representing the 12th generation at the helm. The relatively small size of this house – it owns 10 hectares of vines and sources grapes from around 15ha belonging to other growers – ensures that it stays nimble, enabling the family to avoid the risk of its traditions becoming so entrenched that it leads to inertia and immobility.

What sets Maison Henri Giraud apart, besides being one of the smallest houses in Champagne, is its precise and meticulous approach to wine production.

In addition to being the first to release special cuvées made from pesticide-free grapes, with a label claiming ‘zero residue of pesticides’, this house also pioneered terroir-focused Champagnes from its sector of Aÿ produced with a distinctive practice of barrel-ageing.

‘All of our wines are aged in wooden barrels,’ explains Sébastien Le Golvet, cellarmaster and son-in-law of Claude Giraud, emphasising the point that ‘we want to be as precise as possible, so we have our own facilities for the fabrication of the barrel staves.’

Precision indeed is the name of the game, as all the wood is sourced from a single forest, the Argonne, which has been abandoned by other Champagne producers. Lying east of Reims, the Forest of Argonne was the scene of terrible battles during World War I.

Terroir in oak

It used to be home to no fewer than 150 coopers who supplied all the major Champagne houses at a time when barrel-ageing was the custom. An important feature of this forest is the specificity of its terroir – its very poor soils include a siliceous clay called gaize, in which oak trees grow very slowly and produce tightly grained timber that enhances the expression of wine aged in barrels crafted from it. Explains Le Golvet: ‘We take advantage of the different terroirs of the forest so that we can adapt the exact source of the wood to the stylistic profile of a vintage, also taking into account how heavily the inside of the barrels will be toasted, depending on the grape ripeness of the harvest.’

This is a radically different approach from that of most other Champagne producers. Le Golvet is very clear in his intent: ‘My goal is not to overpower the wines, but rather to magnify the expression of our Aÿ terroir by means of a carefully calibrated barrel-ageing. Aÿ is in a way the Côte-Rôtie of Champagne thanks to its specific microclimate. The terroir benefits from some 20cm of clay and above all its limestone base, which together promote a welcome salinity.’

This is a terroir in which the Pinot Noir grape thrives, and according to Le Golvet, it explains why this grape variety forms the dominant DNA strand for Champagnes from Aÿ, and thus is the area’s signature grape.

New releases

Terroir expression is at the heart of three new and very successful cuvées just launched by Henri Giraud. In Hommage au Pinot Noir, the base wine is 60% from the 2015 vintage, with the remaining 40% sourced from reserve wines from vintages stretching from 1990 to 2014. This blend ages in vats for six months before bottling. It is a Champagne that combines generosity with a taut texture, leading to an impressively long finish.

The MV 15 cuvée is a multi-vintage blend of 20% Chardonnay and 80% Pinot Noir coming entirely from the Aÿ district, and again having as its base wine one from 2015 vintage supplemented with 30% coming from reserve wines. This is a gastronomic Champagne endowed with a sumptuous bouquet but will benefit from further cellaring.

Lastly, the house’s most emblematic cuvée, Argonne 2012, is also sourced entirely from the Aÿ district. It is aged in 100% new oak barrels from the Argonne forest, with only 5,000 bottles produced. Its singular character and, above all, overall precision and balance make it one of the great Champagnes from this outstanding vintage.

Tasting Henri Giraud latest wines