Time plays a role in all great wine, though it is the essential ingredient in Henri Giraud’s inaugural Perpetual Reserve release – the PR 90-19. Inspired as much by philosophy and physics as technical curiosity, winemaker Sébastien Le Golvet set out to bend time and space to his will with this cuvée: a 3D time-elapsed journey through Henri Giraud vintage history. “At Henri Giraud, we speak in terms of centuries,” Sebastien explains.

The art on the bottle is his first metaphysical hint that time is factored into every element of this wine. The design is a stylized equation depicting the contraction of time and space. It’s meant to convey the span of vintages and spatial distances captured in this single cuvée. Everything factors into the equation. Oak barrels made from 90+-year-old trees, base wine from two different multi-vintage soleras that tell vintage stories dating back to the 1950s, time to barrel ferment and mature the Grand Cru base wines at the start, and the time to elaborate the finished wine. 

Opportunity presented Sébastien with another key ingredient - the inspiration. In 2010, they excavated and rebuilt the cellar to replace the stainless tanks with 8 subterranean stainless-lined concrete vats, all buried five meters below the Marne riverbed. The concrete ensures an even temperature exchange to the stainless interior, which allows the multi-vintage reserve wines to mature slowly and naturally at a constant 10.5 degrees Celcius. Preserved like undisturbed treasure.

Much discussion and many, many cigars later, Sébastien and owner Claude Giraud decided the perpetual reserve would be a blend of 1/3 Grand Cru reserve wine from the solera started in 1990, and that is designated for Giraud’s MV Fût de Chène. The other 2/3 would be from an older “Esprit Nature” solera dating to the 1950s. For the first perpetual reserve, the most recent contribution to the older solera was the 2019 vintage, hence the numeric ID “90-19” to represent the time stamp. “Reserve wines are the muscle,” Sebastièn believes. “They give all the memories of every harvest. A global vision of the vineyard.”

"Thanks to time, the blend gives an explosion of flavors."

The result of this first 100% solera-based cuvée from Henri Giraud is impressive. PR 90-19 is a blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. As with all the Giraud wines, it was barrel fermented in Argonne oak and has a minimum of 3 years on lees before disgorgement. 8000 bottles were produced for sale. The lot tasted here was disgorged on the 13th of January, 2023. All Henri Giraud disgorgement dates are etched on the bottle for full traceability. 

Champagne Henri Giraud has 11 hectares of Aÿ Grand Cru vineyard planted on a chalky, Southern facing slope with 75% Pinot Noir (mostly on the slope) and 25% Chardonnay (bottom of the slope). An additional 30 hectares of vines in Aÿ, Vallée de la Marne, and Montagne de Reims are managed under contract, mostly to produce the NV Esprit Brut Nature. Since the early 2000s Claude Giraud, the 12th generation of the Giraud-Hémart family, has overseen the House. Sébastien, Claude’s son-in-law, began in 2004, directed his first solo assemblage the following year, and took over the winemaking entirely in 2010.  

Claude’s imprint on the house style is indelible and marked by his decision to return to Champagne’s historic Argonne Forest to source barrels for the Giraud wines.

Champagne producers abandoned this source after WWI when the forest was destroyed by the brutal Meuse-Argonne offensive that ultimately stopped the advance of the German army. This same diverse terrain that made defending and retaking the forest so difficult back then became a passion project for the Giraud team to explore how to express the full terroir of Champagne.

Over several years the team mapped 10 distinct terroirs in the Argonne and experimented with fermenting wines in barrels from each spot. They discovered that oak from different locations imparted distinct characters to the base wine. This ultimately inspired the creation of Giraud’s eponymous Argonne cuvée, a blend of these distinct base wines married in the second fermentation to deliver the fullest expression of Champagne’s historic terroir. 

The work to understand Argonne barrel influence is profound, and the Argonne cuvée is the proof. More time and experimentation led Sébastien to zero in on barrel subtleties; specifically, he noticed that wine fermented in barrels coming from near the tree roots differed from wine fermented in barrels from the top. “I am a perfectionist,” Sébastien admits. “When we vinify, we know the barrel geolocation. We know exactly where it was, where it grew, its height, and the organoleptic influence it has on the wine. In working, I realized that we indicate the tree, so why not note the height, and then see what the differences were.” To be clear, the barrel work is far from over. Traceability is just Step 1. 

While Claude still consults, he has “officially” handed responsibilities over to his daughter Emmanuelle, who has already managed the business for 10+ years. “It was the natural order for me to take over,” Emmanuelle says, adding that continuing the family business is an important legacy, “touche de Claude,” so to speak, and also of Antoinette, her mother. 

"For us, it is really more the vision of exploring, experimentation, and the adventure of creating wine that lives and that has energy."

Emmanuelle is now one of a handful of women in Champagne leading a House and has her own touch to offer outside of making unique wines. She wants to share the experience of the land and all that it offers. “Creating a sense of well-being is an important aspect of what we want to offer at Henri Giraud,” she says. To that end, the House now offers a 5-room luxury boutique hotel with food & wine tastings and cryotherapy treatments using Champagne chalk 000.  

This first PR 90-19 takes its place in the Giraud range as a precision timepiece. It’s a wine for those who enjoy lingering with an opulent, Pinot-driven, intellectual Champagne that makes for interesting conversation as it changes with time in the glass. “For us, it is really more the vision of exploring, experimentation, and the adventure of creating wine that lives and that has energy,” Sébastien says. “That is a great wine.”