"For even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning."
- Kahlil Gibran, On Love
We read those words at our wedding.
I heard them differently then.
Henriot makes a prestige cuvée called Les Enchanteleurs.
I've always loved the name.
I've only opened Les Enchanteleurs once.
A bottle of the 1996 with a close friend at a restaurant we both loved.
We spent part of the evening talking about design.
How someone who had spent a lifetime refining objects might think about food, Champagne, or beauty.
Years later, another Henriot.
A magnum of the house's 1996 vintage Brut with my brother.
The same vintage.
Different table.
Different conversation.
The Quiet Detail
For years, I assumed Les Enchanteleurs simply meant The Enchanters.
It turns out I'd only translated the word.
The enchanteleurs were the cellar craftsmen.
The people whose work happened out of sight.
They stacked bottles.
Lifted casks.
Prepared wines for the slow work of time.
Long before it became the name of Henriot's prestige cuvée, it belonged to the people whose hands quietly shaped it.
Henriot has always thought this way.
When Apolline Henriot founded the house in 1808, she believed one year wasn't enough to tell the story of her vineyards. She began keeping wines in reserve.
Different seasons.
Different expressions.
A larger whole.
More than seventy years later, another union shaped the house. The marriage of Paul Henriot and Marie Marguet brought together the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Blancs.
Pinot Noir.
Chardonnay.
Two histories becoming one.
Brut Souverain still carries that philosophy.
Twenty-nine crus.
Thirty to fifty percent reserve wines.
No single year expected to tell the whole story.
Before I taste a bottle, I hand her the first glass.
"What do you smell?"
She smiles.
"Will it be dry?"
She already knows the answer.
Sometimes lemon.
Sometimes apple.
Sometimes flowers.
Sometimes candy.
Every now and then she'll like a rosé Champagne I had already decided she wouldn't.
She has never loved Champagne the way I do.
She still reaches for the glass.
She knows I'll linger after dinner.
One more question about the vintage.
A story that reminds me of another story.
Sometimes she wanders through the shop.
Sometimes she waits.
Some weekends it's my turn.
We wander through pottery fairs.
She picks up another handmade bowl.
I look a little longer than I used to.
There was a time I waited for reasons to open Champagne.
Birthdays.
Anniversaries.
Promotions.
Then came the long months when no one gathered.
Bottles stayed on shelves.
Tables sat empty.
The first night we could gather again, we ordered Champagne.
Everything else followed.
I still return to Gibran.
The words haven't changed.
It took me writing this to understand the name.
Before I can hand her the glass, another voice reaches for it.
My five-year-old closes her eyes.
"Flowers."
Bottle of the Week
Henriot Brut Souverain NV
Structure
50% Pinot Noir · 45% Chardonnay · 5% Meunier
29 crus
50–70% wines of the year
30–50% reserve wines
Minimum 3 years on lees
Dosage ≤ 5 g/L
Origin: Montagne de Reims and Côte des Blancs
Henriot Brut Souverain was the bottle that first helped me understand the house.
Nothing feels exaggerated.
The wine is composed from the first sip.
Fresh without being sharp.
Textured without feeling rich.
It gains rather than loses with air.
The second glass usually tells you more than the first.
What to Notice
Freshness.
Texture.
Citrus.
White flowers.
Chalk.
Each arrives in its own time.
Where to Find It
Usually $50–60, though it occasionally drops below $45 on sale.
Check Wine-Searcher for current pricing.
One of the more widely available grandes marques and, for me, one of Champagne's quiet overachievers.
A Short Detour
Les Enchanteleurs was not named for enchantment itself.
It honored the cellar craftsmen whose work prepared the wines for time.
Sometimes the story behind a bottle changes the way you taste it.
Until the next bottle,
Manj
P.S. What's something someone you love taught you to notice?
Short Champagne notes on Instagram: @le_dosage