Highlights: Champagne Henriot Brut Souverain NV
Website: https://www.champagne-henriot.com/
Tried this in the lounge en route to Portugal today. Really like it. Henriot was part of Artémis, a big luxury wine group, until 2023. Then it was sold to Champagne’s largest cooperative group, Terroirs et Vignerons de Champagne (TEVC). They have 30 hectares of their own vines and buy fruit from growers farming another 65 hectares.
Champagne Henriot Brut Souverain NV France
12% acohol. This is 45% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier. 29 crus, and a significant dollop of reserve wines (30-50%, perpetual reserve). Dosage is less than 6 g/l and ageing on lees is more than three years. The base wine of this year is 2020 which means it probably spent 3 years on lees before being disgorged in 2024 (my guess from the lot number) and it has spent a year ageing under cork. It’s bright, vivid and fruity, without too much sweetness, but with some nice pear and apricot hints around the cherry and citrus fruit, giving a rounded character in the mouth. It’s refreshing and nicely complex, showing really good balance. 92/100 (this is good value: The Wine Society have this for just over £30 a bottle when bought as a six pack)
