It’s been produced every year since 1880, the year that Paul Henriot married Marie Marguet, a girl whose family owned vineyards in the Côte des Blancs.Ī key to its style is that 40% of the wine is reserve wines. More than two-thirds of the grapes are from premier and grand cru vineyards. But the other wine we tasted online, the Blanc de Blancs NV, impressed me just as much and it’s a quarter the price (AUD $120). The 2006 Cuvée Hemera is a beautiful wine, as we might expect at a price north of AUD $340. Champagne is not always a successful business to be in.” “We survived the terrible times of two world wars and the great depression of the 1930s. Gilles de Larouzière began the presentation by remarking that Champagne had been through many difficult times, at least as testing as the COVID-19 pandemic which has decimated global Champagne sales this year. Apolline Henriot was the widow of Nicolas Simon Henriot. In 1808 she made wine from her father’s vineyard in Bouzy and created the Maison Henriot marque. She actually lives in the original vineyard of founder Apolline Henriot, and therefore feels she has a close link with the family and the maison. Henriot used the webcast to simultaneously introduce its new chef de cave, or head winemaker: Alice Tétienne, who joined Henriot from Krug in January this year.įor someone who has spent less than a year in the job, Ms Tétienne’s grasp of the fine details, the house’s history and its philosophy was impressive. The vineyards are all grands crus: the pinot noir is grown in Verzy, Verzenay and Mailly-Champagne and the chardonnay in Le Mesnil sur Oger, Avize and Chouilly. It’s a blend of equal parts pinot noir and chardonnay, the pinot from the northern slopes of the Montagne de Reims and the chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs. The latter was evidently a more robust wine, while the Hemera is ‘fresher’ – more refined and restrained, and contains more chardonnay. The name change also signifies a change of style from the Enchanteleurs. It was debuted in time to commemorate the 210th anniversary of Maison Henriot, established in 1808. I guess the 2005 didn’t make it to Australia. The wine is a 2006, and I had the impression it was the inaugural release, until I discovered on the internet that a 2005 had been released previously, in 2018. Cuvée Hemera also symbolises the passage from the half-light of the cellars, where time weaves its magic, to the radiant brightness of the momentary, intense tasting of the Champagne.”ĭespite the name change, it’s still a challenge for some Anglophones to drop their aitches twice in quick succession – “Ong-ree-oh Cuvée Emm-er-ah”. “In Grecian times, Hemera would unveil night to reveal the day’s first rays of light. Hemera is the ancient Greek goddess of daylight, and the Henriot people see this as appropriate to their wine. President and eighth-generation member of the Henriot family, Gilles de Larouzière, said during a webcast to launch the wine that few people could pronounce Enchanteleurs, especially – perhaps – those in the Asian countries increasingly important to Champagne. But the Blanc de Blancs NV impressed me just as much and it’s a quarter the price. The 2006 Cuvée Hemera is a beautiful wine. Named Henriot Cuvée Hemera, it’s effectively a replacement for the previous prestige wine, Cuvée des Enchanteleurs. Henriot, for long one of my favourite Champagne producers, has debuted a new prestige cuvée – or at least, new to me. Champagne Henriot’s chef de cave Alice Tétienne Champagne Henriot
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