2004 Henri Giraud Brut Grand Cru Argonne, 1-bottle Lot, Wood Case

Champagne Henri Giraud is in Ay, in the heart of Champagne. Though the family has been involved in grape growing and winemaking since the 17th century, the Champagne house was founded in the early 20th century when Leon Giraud married into a family with vineyards that had been destroyed by phylloxera. Giraud replanted them and started making Champagne. Today his grandson Claude Giraud owns and operates the estate. Antonio Galloni writing for Wine Advocate noted that “Claude Giraud makes some of the most unique, individualist wines in Champagne. All the wines bear the unmistakable stamp of the Grand Cru vineyards of Ay. The top selections (Cote Noir and Fut de Chene) are vinified and aged in oak, which plays an important role in shaping many of the fines wines here. At their best, the Giraud Champagnes offer incredible intensity, class and balance.”

Champagne is a small, beautiful wine growing region northeast of Paris whose famous name is misused a million times a day. As wine enthusiasts and all French people are well aware, only sparkling wines produced in Champagne from grapes grown in Champagne can be called Champagne. Sparkling wines produced anywhere else, including in other parts of France, must be called something besides Champagne. Champagne producers are justifiably protective of their wines and the prestige associated with true Champagne. Though the region was growing grapes and making wines in ancient times, it began specializing in sparkling wine in the 17th century, when a Benedictine monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon formulated a set guidelines to improve the quality of the local sparkling wines. Despite legends to the contrary, Dom Pérignon did not “invent” sparkling wine, but his rules about aggressive pruning, small yields and multiple pressings of the grapes were widely adopted, and by the 18th and 19th centuries Champagne had become the wine of choice in fashionable courts and palaces throughout Europe. Today there are 75,000 acres of vineyards in Champagne growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Champagne’s official appellation system classifies villages as Grand Cru or Premier Cru, though there are also many excellent Champagnes that simply carry the regional appellation. Along with well-known international Champagne houses there are numerous so-called “producer Champagnes,” meaning wines made by families who, usually for several or more generations, have worked their own vineyards and produced Champagne only from their own grapes.