Charles Heidsieck (Champagne) Charles Heidsieck (Champagne) Charles Heidsieck is the smallest of the Grandes Marques champagne Houses. Based in the Reims region of Champagne, it is one of the best-known producers for both vintage and non-vintage "cuvée". It is part of group since 2011. The house was founded in 1851 by the French champagne maker Charles Camille Heidsieck, who became known as Champagne Charlie. Charles Heidsieck was born in 1822 into an eminent Reims family whose wine-making traditions date back to Florens-Louis Heidsieck (see Heidsieck & Co). In 1851, at age 29, he founded a wine house (Maison) bearing his own name. He
Philippa of Champagne married as her husband Erard I of Ramerupt, a powerful noble from Champagne, France. The couple married clandestinely in defiance of Pope Innocent III's prohibition of their marriage, due to the couple having been related within the prohibited degree of kinship. Pope Innocent was prompted by the machinations of her aunt Blanche of Navarre, who had also seized Erard's fiefs. Shortly after their marriage, Erard encouraged Philippa to claim her father's county of Champagne which had succeeded to her cousin, Theobald IV who was still a minor. His mother Blanche of Navarre acted as his regent and she violently defended