2015 Henriot ‘Cuvée des Enchanteleurs’: The Return of the Master Illusionist. [ read the full champagne story ]
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Henriot Cuvée des Enchanteleurs 2015: The Return of the Master Illusionist
There are moments in the Champagne world that feel less like a product launch and more like the return of a long-lost sovereign. After a decade-long hiatus where the name Hemera took center stage to reflect a shifting climate and harvest precision , Maison Henriot has listened to the emotional and historical heartbeat of its devotees. The king has reclaimed its crown: Cuvée des Enchanteleurs is back with the radiant 2015 vintage.
A Legacy of ‘Enchantment‘
The name itself is a tribute to the artisans of the shadows—the enchanteleurs—those cellar craftsmen who traditionally stacked the bottles on laths and watched over their slow, silent evolution. Born originally in 1889, this cuvée was designed to be the ultimate expression of the House’s historic founding terroirs.
The soul of this wine lies in a perfect marriage between the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Blancs. It is a story of two families and six Grand Crus. Apolline Henriot founded the House in 1808 with vines in Verzy, Verzenay, and Mailly-Champagne. Later, the marriage of Paul Henriot to Marie Marguet in 1880 brought the luminous Chardonnay terroirs of Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, and Chouilly into the fold. These six founding Grand Crus remain the exclusive DNA of Cuvée des Enchanteleurs.
The Solar Vintage: 2015
The 2015 vintage in Champagne is increasingly being recognized as an “emblematic” year. It was a year of light—a warm, radiant summer marked by exceptional sunshine that pushed ripening to ideal levels. While the season was dry, timely rains in August provided the necessary “coolness” to maintain balance.
For Henriot, 2015 yielded grapes of rare aromatic intensity:
- Chardonnay: Chiselled, linear, and radiant, providing the purity and tension that is the hallmark of the Côte des Blancs.
- Pinot Noir: Dense, generous, and structured, unfolding the texture and depth characteristic of the Montagne de Reims.
The Birth of a Singular Cuvée
It was within this founding dynamic, at the end of the 19th century, 10 that a singular cuvée was created in 1889, conceived as the expression of the historic terroirs brought together.
Crafted from the wines of the six founding crus in equal proportions, it embodied from its inception the pursuit of balance, depth, and long ageing that characterize Maison Henriot. 10 Later, this cuvée would take the name Cuvée des Enchanteleurs, a tribute to the craftsman in the shadows of cellars, those artisans who watched over the wines and guided their evolution over time.
Words of the cellar master
« The 2015 vintage offers a solar, generous expression, perfectly balanced by the freshness and salinity that define Henriot’s terroirs.
Alice Tétienne, Cheffe de Caves de la Maison Henriot
Cuvée des Enchanteleurs 2015 reveals a wine of structure and energy: Chardonnay brings purity and tension, while Pinot Noir unfolds depth and texture. On the palate, precision reigns, yellow fruits, candied citrus, acacia honey, and a long, mineral finish.
A Champagne of emotion and light, made for longevity and memory. »
Alice Tétienne’s Vision: Structure and Energy
Under the guidance of Cellar Master Alice Tétienne, the 2015 Enchanteleurs is an equal dialogue between the two varieties (50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir). This is a wine built for the long haul, having spent at least 10 years aging in the darkness of the Henriot chalk cellars.
Tétienne describes the wine as “solar and generous,” yet perfectly balanced by the salinity distinctive to the Henriot style. On the palate, the precision is striking:
- Aromatics: Notes of yellow fruits, candied citrus, and acacia honey.
- Texture: A wine of structure and energy where Pinot Noir provides the “flesh” and Chardonnay provides the “nervous system”.
- The Finish: Long, mineral, and persistent—a true Champagne of “emotion and light”.
TheChampagneSommelier’s Take
With a remarkably low dosage of 3.5g/L, Henriot allows the terroir to speak without artifice. The return to the original name is accompanied by a sleek, restrained rebrand—removing the neck label for a purer silhouette and utilizing an individual wooden gift box that underscores the wine’s prestige.
As Managing Director Guillaume Deglise notes, this is not a step backward, but an “assumed continuity”. For those of us who live for the intersection of power and elegance, the return of the Enchanteleurs is nothing short of magical.
« The return of Cuvée des Enchanteleurs is not a look backward. It is the expression of an assumed continuity: that of a House that evolves without ever denying itself, faithful to its terroirs, its history, and its standards of excellence. By restoring this cuvée to its original name, we affirm our determination to remain true to the identity of Maison Henriot, while fully anchoring it in its time. »
GUILLAUME DEGLISE
Chief Executive
Officer Maison Henriot
Tasting note by Champagne Club by Richard Juhlin
95(91)p
50PN 50CH
Once again, they have returned to the name that made Henriot’s eminent prestige champagne famous. Cuvée Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Cuvée Baccarat and most recently Cuvée Hemera in all their glory, but it is Les Enchanteleurs that sounds the most beautiful and that at least I personally associate most with the greatness of the fantastic house. The label and appearance are new, but the recipe is the classically accepted one with equal proportions of Grand cru chardonnay and pinot noir, this time with a low 2.5 gram dosage.
The 6 villages are Mailly, Verzy and Verzenay and for chardonnay Avize, Chouilly and Le Mesnil distributed in exactly the same proportions. When I met Alice Tetienne and tested this edition, she sensationally told me that this cuvée was made in-house already in 1889 and that the oldest they have left is the legendary vintage of 1921 which is apparently still in top form! So Les Enchanteleurs is actually one of the oldest prestige cuvées, even though its commercial entry took place much later. In recent years, both Alice and her predecessors have been even more meticulous with the harvest date and ripeness level of the grapes. With climate change, you otherwise risk flat and overly powerful wines that are not representative of the sophisticated style the wine should always exhibit. The selection is now even more focused on minerality, freshness and purity.
This, together with the low dosage, means that the wines can feel a little less lush at launch, but also that they last even longer in a good cellar. 2015 was a tricky year where few succeeded. One difficulty was that in addition to the quickly ripening and heat-affected low-acid grapes, there was also a relatively large amount of grapes that never ripened because the heat caused the vine to withdraw the sap and stop the process as protection.
This resulted in green, immature and bitter flavors if these grapes were included in the presses. Here in Les Enchanteleurs there is of course not a single overripe or unripe grape in the selective composition. The result is an astonishingly elegant and mineral-infused luxury cuvée from 2015. An orange juice-like refreshing buoyancy is mixed with salt-sprinkled minerality. Here there is a rumbling dark power in the background and at the same time a precision that impresses greatly. The sunny character of the vintage is toned down and tamed like a well-trained circus tiger. There are hints of dark berries and slightly smoky notes, but with orange, candied citrus with a light roast that will be accentuated with aging. In the finish, the characteristic bitterness and tannin whisper that draws grapefruit emerge. Drink as a salivating aperitif already now, but if you want to reach the potential greatness that the creation possesses, you should open the bottle between 2032-2050.
Technical Spotlight:
- Blend: 50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir.
- Sourcing: 100% Grand Cru (Verzy, Verzenay, Mailly-Champagne, Avize, Chouilly, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger).
- Aging: 10+ years sur lie.
- Dosage: 3.5g/L.
- Service: Best enjoyed between 9-12°C to allow the solar complexity to unfurl.
