Henri Abelé

The French house Henri Abelé is one of the classic names in French champagne, today owned by the Spanish group Freixenet. A true connoisseur of the secrets behind the production of these magnificent sparkling wines, their Brut is a symbol of both tradition and modernity, having withstood over 250 years of history. Théodore Van der Veken, patriarch of the Abelé lineage, was one of the first to establish his own house in the French champagne region. In 1757, he chose Reims as his base, captivated by the land, the scents, and the light of this region. From the world's most famous wine-growing area, now the global capital of champagne, and battling the elements that make vine cultivation in these lands nearly impossible, he began crafting high-quality sparkling wines, managing to capture in every bottle what fascinated him: the sunlight of this region. As a distinctive symbol for its image, he chose the smiling angel sculpted on the tympanum of the left portal of the Cathedral of Our Lady, known as Le Sourire de Reims. It is the only angel in art history that smiles, and it does so from the cathedral built in Reims. For the Abelé family, this emblem defining their products symbolizes, with its smile, their passion for beauty and the tradition of the third-oldest champagne house.