Calling the champagne experts out there. I have been thinking on buying some Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve NV. I have the 2020 disgorgement (laid in cellars in 2017) and maybe the 2019 disgorgement available to me, as well. Looking at Cellartracker, I see there are quite a few comments saying this cuvee is not what it used to be (I also note that plenty of people also seem to like the recent disgorgements). I understand the days on seven years ageing before release are over and I believe I have read here on WB that there is a decreasing amount of older reserve wine that goes into the NV. Is that latter statement true? More generally, for those of you with more experience with Charles Heidsieck than I, has quality declined compared to five or ten years ago? I appreciate your thoughts!
Yes, it most certainly has. The NV bottling was out house champagne for quite a few years and over the last 12 months there has been a marked shift in the profile of the wine.
The recent late disgorgments I’ve had (2018+) are a shell of themselves. We’ve looked elsewhere, as there are certainly better values.
My understanding is that while they aren’t going back to the 6-8yrs between bottling and disgorgement, they are now seeing a small amount of oak as well as increased amounts of reserve wine to make up for some of that lost time on the lees. The reason for the few years of small disgorgement windows was due to their sales growing faster than what they had in their cellar stock. While I haven’t had any of their most recent releases, I too have heard that while they don’t totally resemble the offerings of 5-10yrs ago, they are better quality than those from just 2-3yrs ago.
I’m no expert, so hopefully someone will chime in! Always a favorite champagne at the price.
The 2016 based NVs are the first to use oak and the first fully directed by new winemaker Cyril Brun. Charles Heidsieck never intended the NV Brut Reserve to have 6-8 years of aging prior to disgorgement; that was an unfortunate event for them that became fortunate for us.
As mentioned above, the reserve wine formula has also changed a bit - the amount of reserve wines has increased and so has the formula of which wines to use. This along with the small addition of oak (5-10%, barrels are usually 5-8 years old) were done to try and accomodate a more normal amount of aging prior to disgorgement (3-4 years). These changes do make the 2016 base a bit rounder and more approachable than the 2015 base was on release with a similar amount of pre-disgorgement aging. Still, this isn’t going to make up for an additional 3-4 years of pre-disgorgement aging - especially on release. The quality of the Charles Heidsieck NV Brut Reserve is as good as ever, but the wines will be tighter and less round on release. You are going to need to age the wines for a few years to get them to fill out like previous releases (especially the 2007-2013 bases).
I had the 2020 disgorgement of this last week and thought it seemed like the ratio of reserve wines was high due to its color and fullness, but maybe as Brad said it is from the oak treatment.
Jerry,
The oak might be a part of it, but, as you mentioned, I think the increase in and different mix of reserve wines is the leading factor. The oak matters too, but it is more in the background in helping with the wines texture and roundness.