Charles Heidsieck: 2016 and Essi Avellan Brut Réserve NV Blend

Heidsieck was a popular surname in 19th century France, but there’s no competition between Piper and Charles. Owned and managed by the same luxury firm, like all good siblings they also share a room, both situated within the same grounds in Reims. Standing within the grand reception room of the elaborate golden Piper-Heidsieck HQ building, we were greeted by Dominique, International Brand Ambassador for both Piper and Charles. From here our experience began, as Dominique led us over to the Charles Heidsieck winery towards the rear of the complex, where our tasting of the Vins Clairs was to take place. And what a complex it is – vast grounds house multiple modern, yet nondescript buildings that leave one equally impressed and intrigued.

We visited on Friday morning with Essi Avellan MW and were surprised by how deserted the place appeared to be. “Not many employees work on Friday in Champagne,” explained Dominique. “They prefer to start earlier on the weekdays instead.” We couldn’t help but wonder if we were perhaps in the wrong section of the industry….

After a brief introduction of the factories where disgorgement, dosage and labelling take place, Dominique opened the doors to the winery itself. An imposing building containing close to 100 stainless-steel tanks varying in size, all connected and accessible by a clever labyrinth of suspended walkways, the scale of operation here is quite grand. Laboratory-clean, each tank glistened with pride, and we were told the centre-piece – two huge stainless-steel blending tanks – hold enough wine to fill half a million bottles of Champagne each.

Having sufficiently whet our appetites, Dominique led us to the tasting room where we were to sample the 2016 base wines. Chef de Cave Cyril Brun was unfortunately away in Japan, but we were left in the capable hands of his number 2, assistant winemaker Stéphane Lipreau. Stéphane began with the customary overview of the 2016 season. Highlighting the difficulties in the summer, he commented: “July was scary… lots of downy mildew. But we couldn’t believe our luck when the weather dried up for September.” Describing the harvest as “perfect”, Stéphane reflected what we’d been hearing all week – ideal weather in September was a huge relief for winemakers all over the region.

Whilst Charles Heidsieck were unlucky with some of their smaller vineyards, Stéphane praised the quality of the Chardonnay grapes from Grand Cru sites. “Pinot Noir was good in most places, but Chardonnay from the Grand Crus was fantastic.”

For our 2016 base wine tasting, Stéphane presented two Chardonnay’s, two Pinot Meunier’s and two Pinot Noir’s from a range of villages across Champagne.

Chardonnay

Villers-Marmery Montagne de Reims
Unusual vineyard as Chardonnay is not normally grown in the north of Montagne de Reims. This has great fresh apple notes and hints of peach. Good structure with a hint of bitter and a tangerine edge. Fruit intensity gives impression the acidity is lower than it probably is!

Avize Côte des Blancs
Wonderful ripeness suggested by the nose and a hint smoky. Lots of ripe red apple flavours, with tropical hints coming through with apricots, hint of pineapple and some spiciness; great length.

Pinot Meunier

Ville-Dommange Montagne de Reims
Meaty edge and hints of black fruit on the nose. More subtle strawberries and blackcurrant on the palate. Great acidity and very fruity. Moderate length.

Verneuil Vallée de la Marne
Lots of delicate fruits – packed with strawberry and blackberry flavours. Hints of peachiness, apricots and a hint of tangerine. Has a real fleshiness of fruit.

Pinot Noir

Aÿ Vallée de la Marne
Very expressive! Some tropical notes. Lovely structure, balance and richness. Loads of apricots and tangerine and seems to go on forever. Good acidity and some meatiness on the finish. Very good! PN from Ay is looking great this year.

Verzy Montagne de Reims
Much more red fruits, strawberries etc. Nice soft texture, expressive redcurrants on the palate. Good energy and vivacity. Could drink now.

Reserve Wines

After we had tasted the 2016 Vins Clairs, Stéphane informed us of our next experience – we were to sample Charles Heidsieck reserve wines from the same village across a variety of vintages. He had prepared Chardonnay reserve wine from three vintages of the northern Montage de Reims village, Verzy and Pinot Noir reserve wines from three vintages of the southern Côte des Blancs village, Cramant. This included Cramant from the exquisite 1996 vintage, the oldest reserve wine Charles Heidsieck currently stock and the oldest we tasted on our Vins Clairs 2016 trip.

Pinot Noir

Verzy 2012 Montagne de Reims
Slightly tighter than others. Lots of apricots and good acidity. Quite delicate but drinkable.

Verzy 2009 Montagne de Reims
Less expressive and tighter than the 2008. Good mouth-feel, less acidity but more tangerine and lychee flavour. Very aromatic.

Verzy 2008 Montagne de Reims
Big expressive nose! Real tastiness and bright acidity. Concentrated lemon flavour on the palate. This has great length – flavours keep coming out more as you leave it. Hint bitter finish, but very nice!

 

Chardonnay

Cramant 1999 Côte des Blancs
Very perfumed with lychee and apricot aromas. Peaches and cream flavour shows through on the palate. Warmth, tastiness and loads of roasted cashew notes.

Cramant 1998 Côte des Blancs
Again, lots of lychee here with peaches and cream hints. Very rich and complete. Slightly softer acidity and great complexity!

Cramant 1996 Côte des Blancs
Loads of flavour here, this is still a powerhouse! The acidity is holding up beautifully, this is just delicious. Could drink and drink.

 

Essi Avellan Brut Réserve NV Blend (based on 2016 vintage)

After tasting both the 2016 base wines and reserve wines from six different vintages, Essi was again inspired into assemblage! For their annual Brut Réserve NV, Charles Heidsieck use 60% current vintage wines and 40% reserve wines (the maximum allowable amount). In a light-hearted challenge to good friend and cellar master Cyril Brun, Essi was professionally precise and gathered the appropriate measuring instruments to set about creating a 200ml blend – using 120ml (60%) of the available 2016 wines and 80ml (40%) of the available reserve wines.

2016 Base Wines
For the 2016 base mixture, Essi decided to evenly divide the grape varieties. Using varying amounts of all of the 2016 vins clairs we tasted, she started with a third each (40ml) of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay:

Pinot Noir	Pinot Meunier	Chardonnay
30ml Aÿ	30ml Verneuil	20ml Villers-M
10ml Verzy	10ml Ville-D	20ml Avize

 

Reserve Wines
For the reserve wine mixture, Essi decided on an even split: 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay, using differing amounts of the reserve wines we tasted:

Pinot Noir	Chardonnay
25ml Verzy 2012	10ml Cramant 1999
5ml Verzy 2009	20ml Cramant 1998
10ml Verzy 2008	10ml Cramant 1996

The final blend was an expertly balanced 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier grape variety mixture.

After a quick tasting and collaboration with Stéphane, Essi decided the blend needed more character, adding a further 10ml of the incredibly complex Cramant 1998 reserve wine and 10ml of the expressive Aÿ from the current 2016 vintage. We have to say that for 10 minutes work, her blend was perfectly balanced and structured. She might not be making Cyril redundant anytime soon, but her expert knowledge of the region and villages was evident in her precision. Modest as ever, Essi commented only: “You can’t really get it wrong with wines of this standard.”