Pale yellow-gold. Fragrant melon, white peach and tangerine aromas are complicated by smoky lees and floral honey. On the palate, supple melon and pit fruit flavors are energized by smoky minerality. Shows a gently sweet touch and finishes with excellent cut, clarity and persistence.
A bright and lively blanc de blanc, with a clean-cut mineral note underscoring the poached apple, toasted almond, apple blossom and candied ginger flavors, accented by a soft and satiny mousse.
The Henriot NV Brut Blanc de Blancs Disg. 2/2012 is redolent of honeysuckle, heliotrope and linden flower, fresh apple and yeasty brioche, with hints of sea breeze, lemon, grapefruit, and toasted nuts anticipating the salinity and bright citricity allied to piquancy that emerge on the creamy yet vivacious palate. The finish enhances this cuvées patisserie-like personality, evoking quince- and nut paste-filled buttered pastry drizzled with lemon cream, an impression no doubt – and appropriately so – reinforced by ten grams of residual sugar.
The non-vintage Blanc de Blancs has always been one of the strong suits at Henriot, and the new release is no exception. The bouquet is pure, vibrant and classy, offering up scents of pear, apple, chalky soil tones, incipient notes of crème patissière and a top note of white flowers. On the palate the wine is crisp, full-bodied, focused and still youthfully zippy, with a fine core, good focus and grip, elegant mousse and a long, zesty finish.
A generous application of wood and menthol can be found on the dark pinot fruit, spice, floral and newly turned earth aromas. The rich and muscular if rather supple big-bodied flavors possess a caressing mouth feel, indeed even velvety, before culminating in an impressively persistent finish where the only nit is a touch of warmth.
There is ample petrol character to the cool, pure and beautifully fresh nose that combines notes of citrus and yeast with those of green apple and a whiff of pain grillé. I really like the sense of tension and energy to the intense, delineated and solidly complex flavors that are supported by a firm and reasonably fine effervescence before culminating in a very dry, highly complex and superbly persistent finish. The outstanding 2008 vintage in Champagne can count another winner as this is a wine to buy and age in quantity.
