Charles Heidsieck: The original ‘Champagne Charlie’

Founded by the original Champagne Charlie, Charles Heidsieck has had mixed fortunes through the decades. However, says Christelle Guibert, its fascinating legacy is now matched by the strength of its ambition and the quality of its wines.

Madames, monks, bon viveurs; Champagne has had its share of characters from the start.

But with the greatest respect to Dom Pérignon, Madame Clicquot and others, arguably the most significant character of all in the drink’s rise to fame as the premium sparkling wine of the world, is Charles Camille Heidsieck, the original ‘Champagne Charlie’.

It was thanks to his headline-grabbing exploits in 1852 that Champagne first crossed the Atlantic and lodged itself in the consciousness of the global marketplace, forevermore associated with glamour and high living.

Scroll down for Christelle Guibert’s top 5 Charles Heidsieck Champagnes

This association continued in the 20th century, with Charles Heidsieck Cuvée Royale 1973 served at Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer’s wedding in 1981.

There was even a 1989 film called Champagne Charlie, starring Hugh Grant (pre-Four Weddings and a Funeral) in the lead role, with a memorably terrible French accent.

Today, after a period of transition, things are definitely on the up for the Charles Heidsieck house once more.With some outstanding museum releases, plans to increase production – and the re-emergence of the Champagne Charlie luxury cuvée on the horizon too – the house looks set to be making headlines once again.

Talk of the town

Right from its early days, this domaine has known the value of a good story in the news. When Charles embarked on his first trip to the US, he presciently grasped the power of the press.

Having founded his domaine only the year before, at the tender age of 29, he carefully cultivated the image of bon viveur extraordinaire. Lavish receptions, banquets and hunting escapades all ensured he was the talk of New York high society. Sales rocketed as a result.

Charles had been well schooled in the power of the outlandish to move product. His father, Charles-Henri – then working for their relative, Florens-Louis Heidsieck’s company, Heidsieck & Co – had started exporting to the Eastern Front in 1811.

This was in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, and his idea was to travel to Moscow from Reims on the back of a white horse, armed with nothing except crates of Champagne. He aimed to arrive in advance of Napoleon’s armies and celebrate appropriately with the victors.

Charles’ own brush with war was considerably less successful. In 1862, as America descended into civil war, he travelled the country in a desperate attempt to recoup unpaid bills. For his efforts he was arrested on suspicion of being a French spy, and imprisoned in the notorious Fort Jackson.

His arrest caused a diplomatic incident between the French and US governments, which became known as the Heidsieck Incident. It was only after many months of intense lobbying that he was released, on the verge of death and with his fortune swallowed up in the maelstrom of war.

He returned home facing bankruptcy, with nothing save the deeds to a worthless strip of land in the backwaters of Colorado. However, just as the domaine’s gates were about to shut for good, that inauspicious strip of land was turning into the nascent city of Denver. Its value soared, the debts were paid off, and the house was miraculously saved.

In the following years, Charles consolidated the house. Identifying himself primarily as a winemaker, rather than vigneron, he focused on investing in the house’s infrastructure, rather than vineyards.

Hence in 1867 he bought a magnificent collection of crayères, historic chalk quarries dating back to Roman times. Today UNESCO World Heritage listed, they provide the perfect conditions for ageing Heidsieck Champagnes. The unique bottle shape of the Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve NV is in fact modelled on the shape of one (crayère seven, since you ask).

The domaine’s 60ha of vines were supplemented by extensive and long-lasting contracts with growers – and this model continues today, with the majority of its production depending on bought grapes, rather than estate-grown. This strategy is, of course, much copied today, but in the mid-19th century it was highly innovative.

Charles Heidsieck – a timeline

1785 German wine merchant Florens-Louis Heidsieck founds Heidsieck & Co. Later his great-nephew, Charles-Henri Heidsieck, joins the company

1822 Charles Camille Heidsieck is born

1828 Death of Florens-Louis. House taken over by nephew Christian Heidsieck and cousin Henri-Guillaume Piper

1851 Domaine Charles Heidsieck founded

1852 Charles makes his first US trip, visiting New York State and New England

1862 Charles arrested and imprisoned in Louisiana

1867 Purchase of 27 crayères

1893 Death of Charles Heidsieck

1976 Daniel Thibault joins Charles Heidsieck. He launches the first vintage of the iconic Blanc des Millénaires, among other innovations

1985 House acquired by the Rémy Cointreau Group

1997 Launch of ‘Mis en Cave’ bottling

2002 Death of Daniel Thibault

2011 House bought by EPI Group (Descours family)

2017 Launch of first Collection Crayères

A renaissance

Jumping forward to the 1970s, the house was purchased by Joseph Henriot, and it was at this time that Daniel Thibault began to work his magic in the cellars.

Coming from a line of Verneuil grape-growers, close to Epernay, he built up an almost unrivalled reputation for his ageing and blending skills as chef de cave.

Among his innovations were extended lees ageing in the non-vintage Champagnes, which included a very high proportion of 40% reserve wine in the blend, contributing complexity.

With the ‘Mis en Cave’ labelling, wine lovers could now see the date when the wine was laid down in those famous chalk cellars. At the time a cause of some controversy among the Champenois, this too would prove to be a pioneering move that was later adopted by other houses. Thibault tragically died in 2002 at just 55, but his legacy is still evident.

In 1985 Charles Heidseick was acquired by Rémy Cointreau. Although the group invested in the winery, arguably the house identity suffered. With the Krug and Piper-Heidsieck labels also under the same ownership, Charles Heidsieck was arguably sandwiched between the two: Krug the luxury cuvée, Piper the value – and Charles somewhat lost.

Whatever the reason, at the time of its subsequent acquisition by the Descours family’s EPI Group in 2011, it was languishing. Its distribution network had been lost, and sales had dwindled from around four million bottles to just 250,000. The new owners wasted no time, however, appointing Stephen Leroux, former head of marketing at Bollinger, as executive director.

A new era

Meeting Leroux today, along with chef de cave Cyril Brun, one is immediately impressed by their drive and relative openness.

Leroux gets straight to the point: ‘We’ve had to manage a couple of hiccups – and it’s public knowledge we’re not making a profit yet.’ But he adds, with determination: ‘We shall soon, I think.’

Those hiccups meant that, with lack of sales, reserve wines were overflowing in the cellars, with the wine spending an extraordinary seven years on its lees. A plan to get sales moving again means this time will have to come down, and the challenge for Brun is to make this happen without losing the creamy mouthfeel for which Charles Heidsieck is known.

Brun’s solution is to introduce an element of oak. As he notes: ‘I had previous experience with oak vinification, so I thought, let’s aim to be at 5% oaked wine in the non-vintage, and start from a higher point of maturation. Then even with a shorter maturation we should be in the same zone where we’ve been in the past.’

He adds: ‘You have to anticipate a little bit of oxidation which you would not get at the end by reducing the time on the lees.’

Having previously spent 15 years at Veuve Clicquot under chef de cave Dominique Demarville, Brun clearly relishes the challenge posed by this balancing act, and has wasted no time getting to work since being appointed in 2015.

Innovations

Another area Brun has been working on is the process of ‘jetting’. A technique that has long been used in the beer industry, and for some time by sparkling wine producers such as Ferrari in Trento, it is now increasingly used in Champagne.

It involves injecting wine with a precise quantity of water, exciting the carbon dioxide and expelling air from the bottle. By so doing, the wine is freshened up – and, in the case of older bottles, given a new lease of life.

Such is the case with the remaining batch of Blanc des Millénaires 1995. In its time an absolute marvel, it is now beginning to tire. ‘Some of the wine was a bit too rich. I knew it was exactly the type of wine that would benefit,’ notes Brun. So the last batch of around 3,000 bottles was jetted at disgorgement a year ago. ‘Now the wine is closing, it’s a bit more reductive, but in four or five years we’ll have a big smile on our faces,’ he says.

Last year saw the release of the first Collection Crayères. Auctioned at Christie’s, it comprised a series of extremely rare older vintages – including Champagne Charlie 1985 and 1982, and Cuvée Royale 1981 – it is a truly stunning testament to the ageability of great Champagne. The second Collection, due for release later this year, will be a vertical of Blanc des Millénaires, all being original disgorgements with the exception of the 1990, which was disgorged and jetted this April.

Also new for this year is a blanc de blancs NV. At the other end of the spectrum, both stylistically and in price, this refreshing cuvée still evokes something of the domaine’s past, as it’s based on a cuvée that was first produced some 50 years ago. Using the 2012 vintage as a base, with 20% reserve wine, Brun explains: ‘The idea was to capture the fresh and mineral side of blanc de blancs, and of course we don’t want to cannibalise the Blanc des Millénaires, so there is a difference.’

So often, encounters with grandes marques are frustrating affairs of marketing smoke and mirrors, with straight answers thin on the ground. Instead, during my visit to Charles Heidsieck I was struck by the transparency of discussions with the team. For a long time an under-the-radar choice for wine trade insiders, it’s heartening to see the domaine once again asserting itself in the marketplace – and not being shy of articulating this ambition.

Although the team here is very much focused on the future, everyone is fully aware of the legacy – and ultimately the brand potential – of Champagne Charlie’s heritage, which is theirs to draw on. ‘After all,’ Leroux notes with a wry smile, ‘no one’s made a movie yet about Dom Pérignon.’

See Christelle Guibert’s top 5 Charles Heidsieck Champagnes

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