Charles Heidsieck, affectionately known as 'Champagne Charlie' to many, is a champagne house with a fascinating and storied history that makes all true sparkling wine lovers giddy with excitement.

Having previously sold more bottles per year to the United States during Prohibition, smuggled in via Canada, than they now make make in their entire production, Charles Heidsieck has morphed into a producer focused on quality over quantity. They are the only Grande Marque Champagne house not to sell their wines via supermarkets or multiple retail outlets.

The first wine made by current Cellar Master Cyril Brun, who won IWSC Sparkling Winemaker of the Year 2019, the newly released Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve NV Mis En Cave 2017 is their highest scoring Non-Vintage Réserve in nearly 30 years with a huge 18+/20 from JancisRobinson.com's Julia Harding MW. Only beaten by the staggering 1990 Mis En Cave, this puts it up there in terms of quality with a large number of the Krug Grande Cuvée NV releases, but it is offered at less than a third of the price.

Supported with a score of 93 points from Decanter, it was chosen as one of their Sparkling Wines of the Year 2020. This Mis En Cave 2017 is based on the 2016 vintage, with Charles Heidsieck being a rare producer that don't use any base wines younger than 4 years old. With the oldest wine being a 1996 Grand Cru Chardonnay, they have also used wine from the famous 2008 vintage in the blend.

Craved the world over, most Champagne houses have made as many single vintage bottlings as possible from their 2008 wine to capitalise on this demand but Charles Heidsieck have only made 25,000 bottles of there 2008 with no Blanc des Millénaires prodcued. For context, there were at least 5 million bottles of Dom Pérignon 2008 produced. Instead, Heidsieck choose to prioritise building their réserve wines in order to make the best non-vintage cuvées possible.

Davy Zyw, when doing research for his book 101 Champagnes and other Sparkling Wines To Try Before You Die, asked 14 of the top winemakers in Champagne what they drank at home and 12 of them said Charles Heidsieck. You will not be able to find better testament for great value than that.