For all the number crunching, careful chemistry and marketing precision involved, the honest unashamed soul will always admit that winemaking falls back on emotion more than anything else. 'Great wine is something good – great wine with emotion is better,' says Alice Tétienne when asked what the cellarmaster of Champagne Henriot looks for in a glass of bubbles. 'Every Champagne we have is part of a story, and the goal at Henriot is to have emotional, great wines.'
A Reims-based house of great purpose and passion, and tremendous history to boot, Tétienne no doubt knew the size of the shoes she had to fill when taking on the role back in 2020. It was another female gamechanger, Apolline Henriot, who founded the estate in 1808 after the passing of her husband, aiming to develop a distinctive identity built around pristine Chardonnay from the Côtes des Blancs. It was her strong belief that great champagne begins in the vineyard, and that this should be not only seen, but felt deeply by the consumer. Tétienne was clearly the perfect appointment for such a humble purpose, stating 'you cannot just have analysis. You need to consider the feeling you have for your plant, with your experience. I hope we will be able to transmit the same beautiful legacy.'
For this week's Champagne Monday special, we present a recent Henriot release we feel brings translates this idea the very clearest - the impressive L'inattendue Grand Cru 2018! The label created as a representation of their very finest fruit from a given year and a given cru (the team are involved in a tasting exercise, tasting the still wines from across 29 separate land parcels), this 2018 release highlights the vineyard of Chouilly. An area already renowned for producing ripe, round and generous Blanc de Blancs, it has been married with the warmth and abundance of the 2018 season, bringing forth a champagne of elegant fruitful energy, smoky edge, and autolytic toasty bite. The velvety texture and long rich finish on display here is completely enamoring, underpinned by softer dessert-like hints of creamy lemon tart, apple crumble and that addictive tangy saltiness one might expect from a fine dry sherry. Every sip, one can sense that bubbly emotional height that these two women, separated by time but not by place, have hoped to harness. It strikes as the perfect pairing with some mature cheeses, seared scallops or crab risotto. The ageability of the 2018's know no bounds too - this has the vitality to develop further over the next twenty years, comfortably so.
With the talented Tétienne at the helm, the future is very bright indeed for Henriot. 'I have been entrusted with perpetuating the soul of Maison Henriot,' is something she never allows herself to forget. 'It’s simple – good or no good. And when we’ve got it - great, then let’s do it.'
Henriot cellarmaster Alice Tétienne, who took the role on in 2020, is as well-spoken as she is viticulturally gifted. Almost every interview one finds, she speaks sincerely of Henriot's responsbility to the lands of her predecessors, and to the consumers that have long loved their cuvées. It is clearly no coincidence that these champagnes are as memorable as they've ever been.
'I wish I could tell the consumer who drinks my wine, that they may not realise it, but at every stage of winemaking we think of them: what they might expect, feel and experience when tasting our cuvées.'
Champagne Henriot L'inattendue Grand Cru 2018
$215 on special this week($245 RRP)
// 100% Grand Cru Chardonnay (Chouilly)
Over four years of aging on lees before disgorgement in mid-2023
2g/L dosage
"The 2018 harvest potential was extraordinary, both in terms of the generosity of the yield and the quality of the grapes, which reached maturity surprisingly quickly. L’inattendue 2018 offers a generous, exotic, gourmet profile, particularly expressive, with the well-known characteristics of the Chouilly cru. The nose is powerful and elegant. It reveals fresh yellow fruit, pineapple, vanilla notes and a hint of petrol. The palate is ample, round, with a velvety texture and an extraordinary freshness that is unique for 2018, giving it great length." - Alice Tétienne, Henriot Cellarmaster
"Expressive yellow plums, apples, white peaches and brioche adorn the attack with a tightly wound tension of mineral texture and lemon peel acidity. Stylish and long." - 95 Points + Gold Award, Decanter World Wine Awards 2025
"Bright gold. Henriot’s second single-cru release. Lemongrass and lemon curd on the nose. Super-fine, sparse bead playing weightless staccato down the line of the wine. Amplitude shaped by pinions of smoky power and mouth-watering minerality. And yet the wine also has curds of lemon-zested softness at its heart. The kind of wine that would be beautiful with mature, hard, cave-aged cheese, or with nimono (braised) shiitake mushrooms." - 17/20 Points, Tamlyn Currin, JancisRobinson.com
"An elegantly toasty nose reveals refined autolytic complexity interwoven with pristine lemony fruit. The palate is at once brisk and creamy, showcasing impeccable balance. A beautifully composed and deliciously expressive wine with both energy and charm. Henriot’s precision is on full display in this focused single-vintage blanc de blancs release from Chouilly." - 95 Points, Essi Avellan MW
If you wish to purchase this champagne, please use the link above
If you have any questions, please contact us on (07)32521117 or email sales@thewineemporium.com.au
// Special price valid until Monday the 24th of August