A new take on barrel toast to avoid toasted notes in the wines

ver one thousand oak barrels follow one another in the cellars of Champagne house Henri Giraud in Aÿ. “Since 2016, we haven’t used a single stainless steel tank to ferment or mature the wines, only small vessels”, explains the cellar master Sébastien Le Golvet. He buys the wood directly from the trees on the hillsides of Argonne forest located 70km from the farm. “Its very poor loamy soils produce oaks with a tight grain that release few tannins. And we have identified ten different terroirs that produce different styles of wine”.

Le Golvet came up with two ideas: replacing the non-toasted barrel heads and their tannins with sandstone panels, and the oak offcuts placed in the heater by binchotan. “I discovered this white wood charcoal made from Quercus phillyreoides in Japan, where we export a lot. There, the top chefs use it for their barbecue cooking inside the restaurants”. As it only contains carbon and no tar, binchotan does not produce any smoke when it increases in temperature. “It does not instil wines with coarse notes of bacon”, comments Le Golvet who toasted three barrels using the charcoal. He also innovated by inserting a tube filled with Champagne chalk in the centre of the heater. “Chalk increases draught and allows me to use less binchotan which is very expensive”.

The chalk lends iodine-like notes and greater length to the palate. “The Champagnes I have vinted in these barrels are even more elegant”, assures Le Golvet, who plans to do the same again. True to the motto of Henri Giraud – “Preclude nothing, be bound by nothing, make good wine naturally” – he may well go on to do other trials this year.