The Champagne house Henri Giraud looks back on a long and proud history. Today, Claude Giraud and Sébastien Le Golvet, the 12th and 13th generations, work hand in hand. The Chef de Cave Le Golvet can draw from a wealth of 200 plots planted with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, spread across the terroirs around Ay.

Argonne still plays an important role in many ways in the production of these extraordinary Champagnes. The Giraud family has discovered over 10 different terroirs for oak in the Argonne forest. The barrels used are made from these oaks. All wines, except for the Rosé Dame Jane, are aged in wooden barrels for a longer period. For this, a gentle toasting process has been developed to capture the unique terroir of the region.

This "woody" style characterizes the Champagnes of Henri Giraud, but is remarkably well integrated and not at all prominent. Nevertheless, the Champagnes differ in their oak note from what one might be tempted to call "typical" Champagnes.

The attention to detail at the winery goes even further. They have developed barrels that can be individually temperature-controlled to keep the fermentation going, as the temperature is not the same everywhere in the huge cellars.

And the currently newest project is the production of their own corks in Sardinia. Since they have not been satisfied with any cork manufacturer to date, they thought, "then we have to do it ourselves." It is, of course, currently much more expensive, but they hope to get to the bottom of the "silent" cork fault.

Impressive how everything is really thought out from start to finish.

In the wooden boxes of the individually packaged wines, one finds a protocol indicating which employee was responsible for the inspection, so that it can be clearly seen where the error might have occurred.

Chapeau!