A Charles Heidsieck tasting to remember: the Collection Crayères

Michael Edwards visited the Champagne house's cellars in Reims for a unique opportunity to taste old and rare vintages before they went to auction in December 2017...

Charles Heidsieck’s back catalogue has been given a new lease of life following the release of the first ‘Collection Crayères’ at Christie’s auctions in London and New York in December 2017, alongside additional old and rare vintages from the house.

Due to become an annual release of selected older vintages, it is the immaculate provenance of the Champagnes that sets this collection apart, according to Anthony Hanson MW of Christie’s:

‘These pristine Charles Heidsieck vintages have lain untouched in the house’s 2,000 year old chalk cellars since their original bottlings’.

Many of the 29 cuvées reached or surpassed their maximum estimates. Indeed, the fifth and final vintage of Champagne Charlie, the 1985, reached £700, double its RRP.

With just 528 bottles, magnums and jeroboams available in total, stock is incredibly limited, but some are now available through merchants. Stockist details are included where applicable with each tasting note.

The 2017 Collection Crayères:

• Royale 1981

• Champagne Charlie 1982 (Magnum)

• Champagne Charlie 1985

• Millésime Brut 1983 (Magnum)

• Millésime Brut Rosé 1985

New releases in 2018

Blanc des Millénaires matches Champagne Charlie for rarity, with just four vintages released to date, the last vintage being the 1995.

The long-awaited 2004 is due to be released next week and will be available to buy from UK retailers in February. See Michael’s review here.

A second Collection Crayères will follow closely behind.

Looking further ahead

Leroux remains discreet about when a renaissance of Charlie will come, but they plan to do it within 10 years. ‘I already have the bottle and the mould, but first we need to build distribution directly to the right places’.

How typical to take the long view for a jewel of Champagne that sparkled so brightly at this historic tasting.

Champagne Charlie

Charles has the most colourful history of the three eminent Heidsieck Champagne houses (Charles Heidsieck, Piper Heidsieck and Heidsieck & Cie).

Charles-Camille Heidsieck, the ‘Champagne Charlie’ of legend, founded his house with cousin Ernest Henriot in 1851.

He was feted in vaudeville and music hall stories for years following his successful visit to the United States a year later, during which time he charmed high-society and introduced his Champagne to captivated audiences.

By the start of the American Civil War, he was selling around 30,000 cases a year, from New York to Louisiana.

But his luck ran out in 1861, when he was arrested by the Unionists for being in league with the Confederates. After four months in a swampy Mississippi jail, Charles returned home, bankrupt, but thankfully his Champagne house survived.

The cuvée

The renaissance of Champagne Charlie came over a century later, in 1976, when Joseph Henriot, great nephew of Ernest and stalwart of the Reims négoce, bought Charles Heidsieck. A complex character, Joseph was a consummate wheeler-dealer and a genuine lover of great Champagne.

He was drawn to the buccaneering Charles-Camille and was imaginative enough to give carte blanche to his cellar master, Daniel Thibault, to create a prestige cuvée as a tribute to the founder’s spirit. He called it ‘Champagne Charlie’.

Like a true great, Daniel had followed his own instincts. Of the five vintages he made over nine years – 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1985 – his goal was to capture the best from each year in order to express the essence of what Charles Heidsieck could achieve.

Current cellar master, Cyril Brun, in conversation with Anthony Rose, put it perfectly, ‘Charlie [the wine] was a wild animal, aiming to encapsulate something unique. Sometimes it contained more Chardonnay or more Pinot Noir, sometimes very different components, but it was always the product of the intuition of the chef de caves’.

Highlights from the auction: