Description
Wine Details
Vinification/ Aging: Aged in small oak barrels and vinified for over 36 months.
Alcohol Grade: 12%
Best to have it: 7-10ºC
Dosage: 6 g/l
Size: 750 ml
The Winery: Henri Giraud
Champagne Henri Giraud, a House directed by Claude Giraud from an old family settled in Aÿ for several generations on a vineyard located mainly on the mountain of Aÿ.
Aÿ, a prestigious name always mixed with the history of this wine region whose wines for at least ten centuries are classified among the greatest wines of the world. The kings of France have always wanted to own a plot of vines in Aÿ. Henri IV, king of France was even called “Sieur d’Aÿ”. Until 1887, the wines from the region of Champagne were called “wines of Aÿ” and it is only at this date that these wines definitively acquired the name “Champagnes”.
Today 323 vintages of Champagne have the right to produce Champagne but only 17 are legally classified as “Grands Crus.”
Aÿ, classified as Grand Cru, is the geographical, qualitative and historical heart of Champagne.
The house traces its history back 16 generations to the arrival of the Hémart family in the 1600s. The Giraud family married into this tradition in the 1920s and today Claude Giraud represents the 12th generation to run the operation. Unlike a lot of other houses, Giraud is committed to remaining rather small. They own 24 acres of vines and purchase an additional 37 acres worth of fruit, with a cap of 21,000 cases per year.
