Charles Heidsieck Champagne Charlie Edition 2017 i Gavetrækasse

The return with a new iteration of this iconic Champagne, first produced in the 1980s, and named after Charles Heidsieck one of the great Champagne promoters of the 19th century, is to be welcomed. The wine itself lives up to the billing of its history, rich in the house style and with just a hint of maturity. This great wine, still full of white fruits, has so many years ahead. The wine is likely to mature gently for a decade at least.

What a stunning mature champagne! This marries complex toasty aromas with a vitality that makes it easy to enjoy. Enormous concentration and creaminess, but so clean and straight at the super-long, delicately spicy finish that extends out to the horizon. A cuvee of 20% 2016 vintage pinot noir from Ay, with 80% of mature reserve wines, of which a good third were over 10 years of age. Drink or hold.

When Cyril Brun was briefed to recreate this iconic cuvée, he struggled to achieve the plenitude and drama he was looking for. Then, he dug in the Heidsieck archives and discovered, as he tells it, that the famous vintages of Charlie, while vintaged on paper, actually contained reserve wines. Brun therefore gave himself carte blanche to draw on the house's best lots to put together the inaugural NV Champagne Charlie, based on the 2016 vintage but incorporating fully 78% reserve wines dating back two decades. Bursting with aromas of golden orchard fruit, brioche, honeycomb, peaches, spices and buttery pastry, it's full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with a layered core of fruit, racy acids and a beautifully refined pinpoint mousse. Some 52% of the blend is Chardonnay, with Brun looking for ripe, exotic Chardonnay to complement more tensile lots of Pinot Noir. It's a compelling, flamboyant wine—the only thing that may make consumers smart is the price.

A gregarious as its name suggests, the iconic Champagne Charlie cuvée is a complex assemblage of 54% Pinot Noir and 46% Chardonnay dominated by reserve wines, 35% of which are over ten years old and stored separately by vintage and village, plus a contribution of Aÿ wine from the 2016 harvest. Aromatically Charlie practically bolts out of the glass with a rich, floral and hedonistic nose leading to a medium-bodied palate laden with ripe red apple, toast, and honey notes and enveloped by a refreshing, supple acid energy. The high percentage of reserve wines adds considerable opulence and a creamy texture to this classically styled champagne. The bottle tasted was disgorged November 2021 and finished with an eight grams per liter dosage that is well-integrated on the long finish.