Description
Henri Giraud Champagne Argonne 2012 750ml
98 POINTS: WINE ADVOCATE – Revisited after an additional year in bottle, the 2012 Brut Grand Cru Aÿ Argonne continues to show brilliantly, unwinding in the glass with notes of golden orchard fruit, dried citrus peel, tarte tatin, warm spices, walnuts and toasted bread. Full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it’s vinous and multidimensional, with superb concentration, racy acids and a delicate pinpoint mousse. Seamless and integrated, it’s still an infant and will reward further bottle age. Champagne Henri Giraud is well known for its barrel-fermented, muscular and vinous wines. Chef de cave Sébastien Le Golvet, a stonemason by training, explains that Girard farms without pesticides or herbicides and produces their own barrels in collaboration with tonnelleries Chassin, Champenoise, Mercurey and Gauthier. Tirage is just before harvest, so the vins clairs see the better part of a year in wood, on their lees—something that surely helps to account for the textural, patinated house style. Powerful and head-turning in their youth, I’ve been equally impressed with just how gracefully the Giraud Champagnes can age. –William Kelly
