![]() The firm now owns some 25 hectares in locations such as Avize, Chouilly, Le Mesnil, Oger, and Vertus. House production is estimated to be around the 1-1.3 million bottle mark, much of which is exported. Joseph passed away in 2015 and son Thomas now rules the empire. In 1994, Joseph decided it was time to buy back the family house, although it did not come with the vineyards. Henriot was the chairman of the Louis Vuitton board and it was he who then merged Louis Vuitton with Moët Hennessy, thereby creating the monolithic LVMH. At this stage, it was merely Louis Vuitton. Joseph then assisted in initiating a sale of Veuve Clicquot to LVMH (or at least what would become LVMH). The price was 11 percent of Veuve Clicquot. In 1975, he seized the opportunity to take over the then struggling Charles Heidsieck (he had the insight to appoint the legendary chef de cave Daniel Thibault, the man responsible for the extraordinary 1995 Blanc des Millenaires, a champagne that we are still enjoying today and that seems to get better every time a bottle is opened), merging the two houses into a single business and running both until 1985 when he sold to Veuve Clicquot. Joseph had studied agronomy in Paris in the 1950s before joining the family house. As mentioned, Joseph was a powerful man in the French wine industry. Joseph took over in 1962 (Etienne had passed away in 1957, the year Joseph joined the company at the age of 21). He expanded vineyards, ensuring that they were of the highest quality. In 1926, Etienne Henriot took over and dedicated himself to repairing the damage caused by both phylloxera and World War I. Ernest also established another house with his brother-in-law, the house we know today as Charles Heidsieck. Originally, the house sold its wines as Veuve Henriot.Īpolline’s grandson, Ernest, took over and in 1875 expanded both holdings and production (one descendent, Paul, had the foresight to marry into a family well stocked with elite vineyards). She was apparently very skilled at the business as it flourished both in France and abroad, especially Holland, Austria, and Hungary. Apolline, yet another of the astonishing women of Champagne, stepped up and created her own house. The genesis of Henriot dates back to a marriage in 1794 between Nicolas Simon Henriot and Apolline Godinot.Īpolline was the niece of Abbot Godinot, the man who, among various contributions to the creation and improvement of champagne, was said to have produced a set of rules in 1718 based on the dictates of Dom Pérignon himself (rather bizarrely, he was also very keen on promoting the construction of public fountains).Īs he died around 50 years before the marriage one suspects that not only were they unacquainted but that perhaps he was a great uncle or even more removed. Records suggest that the Henriots have been in the Champagne region since at least the sixteenth century, working in textiles and slowly acquiring vineyards. The Henriot clan has not poured all its effort into champagne: it also owns esteemed producers Bouchard (Burgundy), William Fèvre (Chablis), and Villa Ponciago in Beaujolais, originally called Château de Poncie. It is rare for a house of this importance to be under family control, but this has been the position with Henriot since 1994 (and most of its history), when one of the most powerful men in the French wine industry, Joseph Henriot, left Veuve Clicquot to purchase and manage the estate once belonging to his family. Henriot, based in Reims, enjoyed its bicentenary in 2008, which is fortuitous as that is such an amazing vintage. ![]()
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