Description
In the late 1970s, then cellarmaster Daniel Thibault worked alongside the Heidsieck family to create Champagne Charlie as a tribute to their ancestor. With a long experience shaping the Charles’ signature wine style, Thibault followed his instinct to undertake what would be one of the most resounding successes in his winemaking career – the creation of the five editions of Champagne Charlie – 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1985.
This renaissance Charlie is a multi-vintage wine. The intentional use of reserve wines is also, for me, a symbol of a greater freedom of creation in this quest for the absolute. The new Cuvée Champagne Charlie is comprised of nearly eighty-percent reserve wines, with select components aged on lees for up to 25 years. A blend of fifty-two percent Chardonnay and 48 percent Pinot Noir, the assemblage also includes 20 percent wine from the 2016 vintage, cellared in 2017.
In Club Oenologique, Essi Avellan MW writes: “Based on the 2016 vintage, this wine builds on its magnificent wealth of reserve wines. There is already high expression upon release, a super complex nose with vanilla, burned sugar, caramel and liquorice meeting tangerine, pineapple, dried apricots and honey. The sumptuously sweet character continues on the soothingly mellow palate oozing reserve wine richness. Here, the 52% Chardonnay and 48% Pinot Noir going back down to 1998 blend harmoniously into something luxuriously textured. Perfectly balanced with its 7g/l dosage.”