Henri Giraud - Hommage au Pinot Noir mv

Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The NV Hommage au Pinot Noir is another fabulous wine in this range from Giraud. Rich, ample and creamy, the Hommage is so expressive today. The Hommage is 100% Pinot Noir done in an unusual style that sees eleven months in oak followed by six months in tank, an approach that is much more common for white Burgundy. In fact, I have never seen this élevage in Champagne. No matter, though, it all works. Red plum, kirsch, mint, chamomile and spice all meld together effortlessly. The Hommage is rich and generous, but is also light on its feet. This release is based on 2016, with 40% reserve wines.

Champagne Insights

Champagne Club by Richard Juhlin

Incredibly dense, oaky and butterscotch smoky. Impressive and mellow at the dinner table, but a little rough on its own. Always wonderful, but not grand.

Vinum Wine Magazine

Tim Atkin

The Wine Independent

Falstaff

The colour is golden and the wine is markedly viscous. The richness of buttery shortcrust and apple shines, this is like apple pie and yet there is an oyster shell saltiness here and caramel overtones. The palate is just as mouthwatering, presenting a very powerful, muscular but absolutely toned core, underscored by finest freshness and again with that echoing salty depth on the finish. A phenolic edge makes this especially compelling at the table.

Vinum Wine Magazine

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Vinified and matured for six months in barrels, followed by an additional four months in an enameled tank, the NV Hommage au Pinot Noir reveals a pure, delicate and complex bouquet of pear, white peach, tangerine, citrus and spices. Medium to full-bodied, tense and layered, it has a crystalline purity with a slightly phenolic, tannic mid-palate that transitions into a delicate, ethereal finish. This 100% Pinot Noir, based on the 2019 vintage with 40% from a solera, was bottled in 2020 and disgorged in October 2023 with a dosage of five grams per liter.

Since the arrival of Sébastien Le Golvet, the chef de cave and Claude Giraud’s son-in-law, the style of this Aÿ house has considerably evolved toward more fine, elegant and refined Champagnes with barely noticeable oak aromas. The house own nine hectares of vines, mainly in Aÿ, complemented with purchased grapes. Sébastien Le Golvet, like Claude Giraud, is an advocate of barrel fermentation. His work on barrels, containers, fermentation and maturation processes is simply stunning and is always filled with innovation, research and development and questioning the fundamentals. This dynamism allows the Champagnes from this house to be among the finest, most elegant and most precise that I tasted on my last trip.