Charles Heidsieck
Brut Reserve Rose
Champagne
NV

The producer

Another distinguished Champagne house, separate from Piper-Heidsieck, both are associated with the Heidsieck family name and have their roots in the Champagne region of France. Charles Heidsieck, often referred to as "Champagne Charlie," has its own unique history and reputation.

Charles Heidsieck founded his Champagne house in Reims in 1851, he was an ambitious and pioneering figure in the Champagne industry, helping to popularize Champagne in the United States.

The wine

The Charles Heidsieck Rosé Réserve features a 20% base of reserve white and red wines, giving it a subtle yet complex nose. The blend includes 5-6% elegant red wines, which impart fragrances of homemade strawberry jam and blood peach, while a meticulous selection of crus adds rich warm notes of gingerbread and cinnamon. The deep, powerful mouthfeel, developed through aging in thousand-year-old cellars, offers a burst of strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry nestled in velvety whipped cream. Following the initial fermentation in stainless steel and malolactic fermentation to soften acidity, the cuvée is blended with reserve wines and bottled with added yeast for a second fermentation. Aged for three years before disgorging, much longer than the legal requirement of 15 months, this non-vintage champagne achieves the depth and complexity characteristic of Charles Heidsieck.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.