{"id":1395,"date":"2025-01-26T09:16:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T08:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/champagne-bond500.com\/?post_type=product&p=1395"},"modified":"2025-02-25T13:09:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T12:09:18","slug":"champagne-charlie-tale","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/champagne-bond500.com\/eng\/produit\/champagne-charlie-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"Champagne Charlie"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tale of Champagne Charlie<\/strong><\/p>\n

Denver\u2019s role in popularizing the world\u2019s most glamorous wine<\/p>\n

Husband-and-wife writing team Don and Petie Kladstrup have written about wine and Champagne in a few bestselling books, including\u00a0Wine & War: The French, The Nazis and The Battle for France\u2019s Greatest Treasure<\/em>\u00a0(2002);<\/p>\n

and\u00a0Champagne: How the World\u2019s Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times\u00a0<\/em>(2006).<\/p>\n

Their most recent work,\u00a0Champagne Charlie: The Frenchman Who Taught Americans to Love Champagne<\/em>\u00a0(2021), details how Charles Heidsieck, the founder of Charles Heidsieck Champagne in France, came to have an inextricable tie to the city of Denver, and how his Champagne business was able to survive thanks to a turn of events that granted him deeds to a sizable portion of land on which the Mile High City now sits.<\/p>\n

\u201cChampagne had been in America prior to Charles\u2019 time here, but in the middle of the 19th century it became very fashionable due to his efforts,\u201d explains Petie Kladstrup, who has lived in Paris with her husband since 1978. \u201cCharlie was the only producer to actually go to the States and present his bubbly to Americans in person. It wasn\u2019t an easy job, because Americans were considered to be a bunch of beer-swilling, whiskey-guzzling people unfamiliar with the finer things in life. Champagne became a hit because of him. He was treated like a rockstar during his visits between 1852 and 1860, and newspapers followed him everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

A larger-than-life figure who ventured to America from France in the mid-19th Century to sell his fizzy product to the wild denizens of the Land of Liberty, Heidsieck realized incredible success in the States, but not before almost losing his life, and his Champagne company, in events surrounding the Civil War.<\/p>\n

As the purveyor of bubbly was traveling through the South in 1862 to collect debts he was owed from previous shipments of his popular beverage, he was arrested by the Union as a suspected spy. Heidsieck made the unfortunate mistake of agreeing to transport a sealed diplomatic pouch from the French consul in Mobile, Alabama, to the French consul in New Orleans. The pouch contained sensitive information pertaining to a French textile company that manufactured Confederate uniforms. Bad timing.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman was imprisoned and served grueling stints in Fort Jackson (in Louisiana) and Fort Pickens in the Florida Panhandle. He was finally released with the help of the Lincoln administration; but by the time he was freed he was broke, physically infirm and the future looked bleak for the once popular peddler of bubbly.<\/p>\n

One of Heidsieck\u2019s U.S. import agents, David Bayaud (same name as the Denver avenue), who was in debt to Heidsieck for a considerable amount that he never repaid, had a more honorable brother, Thomas Bayaud, who eventually made good on the family obligation. The brother sent Heidsieck a stack of deeds to land in the growing Mile High City. This good-faith repayment, which translated to about a third of the land in Denver at the time, eventually allowed Heidsieck to sell off the Colorado real estate, recoup enough to pay off his business obligations, and perhaps most importantly, keep his vin mousseux flowing. Among other things, he also received cotton in exchange for monetary payment. During the conflict-fraught time of the War Between the States, cotton and land were suitable trade items.<\/p>\n

Heidsieck\u2019s historic journeys to the U.S. were directly responsible for the success of Champagne as the celebratory libation that we know today. His visits to America were legendary, as was his dandified personality, which made him the toast of the towns he visited. His legendary stateside trips inspired his nickname, given to him by the press: Champagne Charlie.<\/p>\n

Heidsieck started his company, Champagne Charles Heidsieck, in 1851, a year before his first trip to America.<\/p>\n

The company is still in business today and is one of Les Grande Marques of Champagne \u2014 24 famous merchant houses in the French province.\u00a0And there\u2019s no doubt Heidsieck\u2019s splashy visits to the States made the drink extremely popular.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he set off for America, people told him he was nuts,\u201d says Don Kladstrup. \u201cThey told him America was far away, unsophisticated, full of Indians, and that he was going to fail. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, or the dreams of anyone else. He was out there identifying with his product and as a result, sales soared and the money rolled in.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Everyone knows about the genie inside the lamp. You rub the lamp, and the genie pops out. For the Champagne Charlie cuv\u00e9e, we were faced with the reverse: we had to take inspiration from history, starting with the founder\u2019s character, Charles-Camille Heidsieck (1822 – 1893), to create a champagne wine worthy of his character<\/div>\n
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A TASTE OF HISTORY, A SCENT OF LEGEND AND A CERTAIN TALENT FOR HAPPINESS.<\/h5>\n

The Champagne Charlie legend is intertwined with the soul of a man who bequeathed so many new ideas to his House, and who knew what it was to be an entrepreneur, a gentleman and an innovator. Free-spirited and adventurous, his inspiration was enough to encourage his heirs today to recreate a cuv\u00e9e in his name and, more particularly, in his nickname.<\/p>\n

The Charles Heidsieck House and the spirit of Charlie invites you to savor times gone by while letting yourself be transported by a desire to form emotions, friendships and lasting dreams. Time has the power to amplify happiness<\/p>\n

Charles Heidsieck transmitted an important legacy: the art of blending. While his competitors focused on meticulously selecting crus, vines and varietals, he concentrated on establishing agreements with the most gifted winegrowers in Champagne, picking out wines from a large range of villages. He could turn every cuv\u00e9e to good effect, leaving each to age at its own pace, depending on its character, until full maturity.<\/p>\n

One bottle of Charles Heidsieck wine can contain up to almost 60 different crus, each differing in cellaring times but generally longer than the average time.<\/p>\n

In addition, our art of blending ensures that Charles Heidsieck wines boast good cellaring potential. The Champagne Charlie cuv\u00e9e will be one of the most distinctive from an ageing point of view: a large part of the blend comes from r\u00e9serve wines aged on lees for up to 25 years<\/p>\n

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Cellared in 2017<\/span><\/h3>\n

Close to 80% matured r\u00e9serve wines and 20% wines from 2016.
\n48% Pinot Noir and 52% Chardonnay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To the eye<\/span><\/p>\n

Dazzling, luminous golden robe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On the nose<\/span><\/p>\n

Notes of grapefruit, roasted pineapple enlivened with the vivacity of toasted and mineral notes. After several seconds,aromas of fresh fruits (apricots, vineyard peaches) briefly appear to give way to persistent notes of pastry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On the palate<\/span><\/p>\n

The texture is truly the soul of Charlie, where we find that paradox of juvenile freshness and fleshiness, with a silkiness befitting of a more mature wine. This \u2018dry fleshiness\u2019 is enhanced with a highly nuanced effervescence, composed of extremely harmonious bubbles. The finish reveals candied citrus and exotic passionfruit notes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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