🍾 Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve

Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve is a non-vintage white Champagne in the Brut style from the house Charles Heidsieck in Reims (Marne).

According to the house, about 60 crus are selected for the cuvée, the key ones being Oger, Ambonnay and Verneuil; the wines are fermented cru by cru and variety by variety in stainless-steel vats, 5–10 % in old Burgundy oak casks.

Charles Heidsieck is a house from Reims founded, according to the house, in 1851; its wines mature in the ancient chalk cellars of the Crayères, 30 m underground.

The boundaries of the Champagne area were set by a law of 6 May 1919: parts of the Marne, Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne departments. The designation’s specification allows seven grape varieties, dominated by Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; grapes are picked as whole bunches, that is by hand, and the yield is limited to 10,400 kg per hectare.

According to the Comité Champagne, Champagne is served chilled to 8–10 °C, and bottles are kept in the dark at a steady 10–15 °C, without vibration. An opened bottle is best closed with a sparkling-wine stopper and kept cold.

It is sold under the protected designation of origin Champagne: the bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle, and the wine is aged for at least 15 months before sale (36 for vintage). Brut on the label is an EU sugar term: less than 12 g of sugar per litre.

Why it matters to you. No year on the label means it is not a vintage wine: the house may blend wines from different harvests. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.