New Champagne Cellar Master Focuses On Terroir

The new cellar master of Champagne Henriot, Alice Tétienne, was not only born and raised in the Champagne region but she has spent the majority of her life in the vines. She is a woman who likes to put her hands in the soil and is deeply curious about the diversity of terroir that exists all around her as there are “278,000 plots” in Champagne with their own personality and so there is a multitude of expressions that need to be blended together to weave a beautiful tapestry that is true to the place and the house style – in Henriot’s case, a style that has been rooted in their family for over 200 years. But Alice’s connection goes beyond her great admiration for this “jewel” within the Champagne region, it is a deeply emotional connection that is linked to her own family.

Champagne Henriot

The legacy of Henriot started in 1808 when Apolline Henriot, the widow of Nicolas Henriot, took over the wine estate and built the reputation of this Champagne house. Initially, the estate was fortunate to have top Grand Cru and Premier sites for Pinot Noir within the district of Montagne de Reims and that great resource was later enhanced by a marriage within the family bringing in top Grand Cru and Premier Cru sites for Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs district. The Henriot family says that the inclusion of these stellar Chardonnay sites determined the House of Henriot style that is based on the finest expression of this grape. This style is rooted in the soil as they prefer plots with the purest chalk that gives “an intriguing and iodine minerality” that is built for “outstanding longevity” ideally expressed in their Cuve 38 – made from four of their best Chardonnay Grand Cru vineyards; being a house that has had a laser focus on the vineyards and the sense of terroir, it is no wonder that they have chosen a cellar master who is so intrinsically connected to the soil and vines.

Alice Tétienne

Alice Tétienne has an impressive resume as she comes from Krug where she was responsible for vineyard relations and a member of the tasting committee. She has various degrees and qualifications that have had an in-depth focus on different aspects of the wine industry, from studying the vines and terroir to winemaking to wine tasting, and after years of studying and analyzing the influence of the soil and geographical topography of a place, she took a deep dive into winemaking and received a degree in Oenology where she was awarded commendations for her innovation and brilliance in regards to winemaking. Before going to work for Krug in 2015, she also gained valuable experience at Laurent-Perrier and Nicolas Feuillatte.

“Initially I wanted to work with the vines and I didn’t want to work with the wine”, Alice replied when asked if she had always dreamt of becoming a cellar master as she was always most curious about how the vineyards worked. Yet one day that changed as she “realized” that she wanted to be part of connecting the result of the vineyard to the wine. It is apparent that Alice will be a cellar master that will spend a lot of time in the vineyards as it is her “passion” and she couldn’t imagine not spending a significant amount of time with the vines. She will be in charge of not only the vineyards that Henriot owns but will work with the growers that also supply grapes to Henriot as the Champagne region has had a long history of houses working with growers as many of the vineyards are tiny plots that have been overseen by the same family for generations. Alice noted that she would work closely with the growers as she obviously speaks the same language as someone who lives in the vineyards. The winemaking process and blending is crucial to her as well but she has a firm belief that it is impossible to have excellence in the winemaking and the blending process if the vineyards are not given a chance to truly express themselves, a sentiment that rings true with the Henriot family for over eight generations and since it is still a relatively small house, the family has been able to keep a laser focus on the terroir that is linked to what they want to express in each bottle.

When it comes to the challenges that Alice sees on the horizon, she first and foremost mentioned climate change. The most important thing is to keep the “signature” of Henriot that includes plenty of acidity, freshness and fresh fruits that have that underlying, intriguing iodine minerality. But as she noted, they have had five distinctively different years recently and so the ability to adapt and innovate with new practices and techniques in the various plots is key to keeping that signature. Her ability and experience of analyzing and knowing the individual personality of each vineyard in Champagne will be a great asset as the climate simply becomes unpredictable with the weather swinging from extremes sometimes week to week. 2020 has been a challenging year with “six months of intense rain” after the 2019 harvest that only let up in March and then after the rain the weather became warm and sunny. Despite it being ideal for human enjoyment, it has caused the vines to advance in their growth which could cause problems if there is an unexpected frost at night or a random hail storm that could be devastating to vines that are too far along in the growing season.

Alice is already devising various strategies for dealing with erratic weather and certainly finding the balance between those particular vineyards that do not get enough ripeness and those that might get too much depending on the year; green harvesting (cutting bunches of grapes to lower yields), plucking leaves around the grape bunches, planting cover crops between vines to either compete for nutrients or give nutrients when mowed into the soil, and on and on. She will be a cellar master that will know the vineyards intimately and will perform, or avoid, certain practices for what that piece of terroir needs, always keeping the winemaking and final blending in mind. A Champagne cellar master that will have her shoes always freshly covered by the soil she loves.

Transmission of Passion for the Vineyards

It became perfectly crystal clear after learning about the long tradition of how important the expression of terroir has played with Henriot’s Champagnes and why the family would choose someone whose soul was rooted in the vineyards; and it is certainly an added benefit that she has a gift for bringing that menagerie of expression that comes from a multitude of plots throughout the winemaking and blending processes. But fate has linked Henriot and Alice in a more profound way that is connected to the transmission of loving the vineyards that is passed down from generation to generation. Alice’s grandmother had a vineyard in Champagne that was eventually sold by her family that, serendipitously, is near one of the first vineyards owned by Apolline Henriot in the Montagne de Reims district in Champagne. Alice lives in that area today and can see both of the vineyards from her house. She described Henriot as a “diamond” that is a Champagne house that has a “light” that has lasted for 200 years and she loved that she would be part of that light for future generations. As she drinks a glass of Henriot looking out onto the vineyards owned once by her grandmother and Apolline after a long day of walking through the vines and overseeing the winery, she knows that the passion of these great women are within her and they will be a part of each future bottle of Henriot.