CHAMPAGNE HENRI GIRAUD – The Giraud-Hemart Family – 400 Years

Scroll through the photos from left to right accompanying the story

At the Wine Paris 2026 trade show, Amar Kabouche and I had the honor of tasting the latest vintages of this exceptional Champagne in the company of CEO Sébastien Le Golvet.

The Henri Giraud estate is located in Aÿ, where Pinot Noir reigns supreme. The vineyard covers around ten hectares and is divided into 35 plots, and the Champagnes are made from their own grapes. Owned and managed by Claude Giraud, 12th generation of the Giraud-Hémart family, the estate produces a myriad of vintages aged in oak barrels from the Argonne forest, which has become its signature.

For its 400th anniversary, the estate’s enlightened team designed the avant-garde BE 10.8 prototype, an innovation in energetic well-being that represents a new paradigm, the HG vision of Champagne in 2050. With its low alcohol content (10.8%), it represents the new generation’s approach to taste in the future world of wine. In order not to distort the beverage, health science has enabled a sublime step towards subtlety thanks to chalk therapy (a beneficial ritual combining a gentle chalk-based wrap, a relaxing bath, and a massage with grape seed oil, which superbly purifies the skin).

The vines in Aÿ Champagne grow on very chalky soil, which naturally led to the realization that potential alcohol content and aromatic maturity are unrelated: it is the “aromatic balance” that determines the quality of the vintage, not the alcohol content. Without any chaptalization, the technical department has learned to vinify at low alcohol levels and has developed a fine bubble tirage that eliminates unnecessary alcohol while giving their poetic cuvées a more sparkling purity.

Champagne BE 10.8 (10.8%) is vinified exclusively in patented dual-material ceramic-bottom barrels, which, among other things, eliminates raw tannins, reduces oxygen permeability, and decreases volume loss during topping up by 30%.

Tasting reveals the emotion of a “gusting” freshness of saline minerals combined with an exquisite length that stretches out like a cosmic star. In 2025, the media composition “Berghain” by Rosalia & Björk, featuring Yves Tumor as guest artists, highlights the futuristic approach to modern music of the same high quality as the wine created by the Domaine Giraud team.

 

The tasting continues with the cuvée, adorned with a rose gold-plated clip and a symbolic “Einstein” engraving: 22/90 PR Rosé (aged for three years on lees from 2022 onwards – very low dosage) from a Perpetual Reserve forged over time since 1990.

This Perpetual Reserve reflects Einstein’s mathematical symbol, an energetic triptych suspended between the fusion of two thousand-year-old terroirs, La Craie d’Aÿ and La Gaize d’Argonne. Crowned with a dash of Aÿ Grand Cru Rouge with an imperious strawberry bouquet sprinkled with notes of smoked bacon, this unique rosé Champagne reveals its aromatic and gustatory complexity, twisted with chalky orange blossom and a lively mineral bitterness.

Brazilian artist Flora Purim, already well known in the 1990s, released a perfect album in 2022, whose samba jazz track “If u will” perfectly matches the luxuriance and fine bubbles of this ballet of flavors.

 

Next up, MV20 Brut in Aÿ Grand Cru, a blend of 1/3 Perpetual Reserve and 2/3 2020 harvest (80% Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), vinified in barrels for one year then aged on lees for four years, reveals all the grace of noble citrus fruits with brioche and menthol flavors.

The series ends on a high note with the legendary Ratafia!

Ratafia Champenois Solera 90-19 (70% Pinot Noir – Chardonnay aged in barrels) reveals the fruity transcendence of 17.5% of the 2019 and 1990 vintages blended to perfection, luminescent with coppery amber where the rich tournament of dried fruits (apricot, fig, currant, prune, candied orange) “illuminates” the palate at room temperature or chilled.

In 1990, inspired by the singer Sade, I thought of this piece highlighting the incredible work of Solera with “Unreal” created by the English group Kalima, whose sensual melody and well-controlled jazz funk rhythm illustrate the richness and fruity fervor of the nectar.

 

Then in 2019, American composer Nicholas Britell created symphonic string masterpieces such as “Keepers of the Keys and Seals” and ‘Agape’ for the soundtrack of the film “If Beale Street Could Talk,” perfectly complementing the graceful liveliness of the juice.

 

 

Ratafia Exceptional aging – Solera Perpetual Reserve since 1990 and for 30 years thereafter, using the best musts from Champagne Giraud – aged in barrels then blended in casks for 48 months for maturation and refined for 6 months in glass bottles surrounded by the elements. The result is a textured and sensual tease of amber gold color (17.5%) where the aromas and flavors of the previous one are complemented by sensations of tobacco, peppery almond, cherry pit, and a more intense length without oxidation. A must for orbital suspension!

 

This day punctuated with Champagne flavors also led us to taste those of Domaine Leclerc Briant, founded in 1872 in Epernay, one of the pioneers of biodynamics in Champagne. Welcomed by Emmanuelle Vautrain and briefly by Frédéric Zeimett, we had the opportunity to savor an underwater cuvée (-60 m in the Breton sea) and some sublime single vineyard wines.

Château d’Avize Grand Cru 2013 Blanc de blancs Brut Zéro:

This is a “100% Chardonnay madness” with lively honeysuckle coupled with beeswax, a ballet of spicy citrus fruits in an appetizing chalky and pastry-like universe, with a sharp tension and zero dosage.

Derrière les Clos 2019 Mailly Champagne Extra Brut (Montagne de Reims):

A 100% Pinot Noir that captivates with its aromas of roasted raspberries and subtle notes of licorice, still within that much-appreciated chalky universe, with a striking straightforwardness of delicate citrus flavors.

Blanc de Meuniers 2018 Extra Brut:

A 100% Pinot Meunier that swirls with a rich, spicy aroma, giving the sensation of a ripe fruit tart fresh out of the oven.

The original, creamy, and mineral palate caresses the tongue like a harp oscillating between resonance and syncopation, leaving the Champagne tradition speechless.

 

Cuvée Abyss Rosé 2019 Extra Brut:

In partnership with Amphoris, a company specializing in underwater farming, the 2019 harvest produced the Cuvée Abyss Rosé 2019, specifically designed for underwater aging. This exceptional cuvée is a blend of 92% Chardonnay and 8% Pinot Noir vinified as red wine. It is made exclusively from the 2019 harvest, disgorged in July 2022 and submerged in October of the same year for 11 months off the coast of the island of Ouessant.

With a lower alcohol content due to the balance of pressure between the depths and the bubbles in the bottle, the wine is delicately iodized, where the marine salinity exudes a fruity citrus and floral violet aroma, in a state of absolute refined fullness.

Thom Yorke‘s 2019 musical composition “Impossible Knots” echoes the complexity of this wine from the depths of the sea with its mineral “aqua-sonic” arrangements.

 

A few series from the corner of the 17 independent Champagne Grands Crus caught our attention, such as those from Fabrice Agrapart in Avize and his cuvées Atoma Brut Nature Blanc de blancs 2023 (stainless steel/barrels) plus 20% from Réserve Perpétuelle 2020, a blend of 7 crus in the Côte des Blancs: Avize, Cramant, Oger, Oiry, Mesnil-sur-Oger, Vertus, and Bergères-lès-Vertus, a divinity where peach ricochets off apple with a mineral “chalkiness”; the panache of wild strawberries baked into brioche in Ameunia VM 23 Brut Nature Blanc de Noirs Premier Cru in the Marne Valley; Anthocya 2023 Brut Nature 98% Chardonnay 2% Pinot Noir rosé with just the right delicate coloration of the grape variety’s anthocyanins, a vibrant palate in a chalky lactescence of citrus and wild red fruits.

Champagne producer Paul Launois transported us into his world of fine bubbles with four “killer” cuvées with very low or zero dosage, playful labels, textured labels created by his highly inspired wife, a treat for the eyes, nose, and palate, alternating between the invigorating salty yellow fruit of the Contraste#3 Pinot Meunier from the Ardre Valley; the fluid, airy, and mineral combination of the Chardonnay Monochrome#7; then Composition#7 and Illustration#5 crowned with succulence on one side crystalline, on the other just subliminally woody.

I chose Champagne Paul Launois ‘Composition#7’ vintage 2021, whose crystalline and delicate microcosm echoes the track “Rainmaker” by American artist John Carroll Kirby, created in 2021.

 

Then, not far away, the Champagnes from the 6.7-hectare estate, Vignon Père & Fils, and the striking and very affordable Grand Cru Verzeney (Montagne de Reims) cuvées, the easy-to-drink Rochelles-Potences 2021 Extra Brut Chardonnay, the sharp Les Espérances 2021 Brut 0 Pinot Noir, the nectarine flavors of the Réserve des Marquises 2019 blend, and the ethereal Vol au Vent Auguste Escoffier 2018 are highly recommended.

And in Moussy near Epernay, the Champenoise Pinot-Chevauchet family teases us with beautiful bottles bearing amusing labels, including Extra Brut, Blanc de Noirs Meunier Vieilles Vignes, Blanc de Noirs Pinot Noir, and Le Temple Parcellaire in a black striped bottle produced at 2,900 bottles! These are providential nectars, very well signed and perfectly recognizable to the eye, nose, and palate for their approach to terroir in the bottle. Dig them!

At Champagnes Gremillet, I particularly liked the Rosé des Riceys 2022, a cuvée that could be described as a childhood treat! I had a very pleasant time with the management and Sophie Rheims, tasting the whole charming range.

Wine4melomanes-Frédéric Beneix-Février 2026