BRUNO FONTAINE AND CHARLES HEIDSIECK CHAMPAGNE

The winemaker: Champagne Charles Heidsieck

Two stars in the Green Guide 2022
This small house founded in 1851 in Reims, well known to discerning wine lovers, owes its success to the style of its vinous and rounded champagnes. With a very high proportion of reserve wines in the blend (40%) and an assertive dosage of 8 g/l, Charles-Heidsieck's brut sans année cultivates an original style, a little against certain fashions, but with an undeniable personality. Since the Descours family bought the house in 2011, a new era has opened up for the house which, without losing its soul, is returning to the forefront with a complete range of high quality wines.

We are still seduced by the level of this brut reserve, which takes on its full meaning here. Given the contribution and dimension of the wine, we think that a slightly lower dosage would be even more beneficial. The rosé is better managed in this respect, as the tannic contribution of the red wines gives it a different harmony. It is a nice, well balanced and fine rosé. The blanc de blancs is classic, with a toasty style conferred by the reduction. The 2012 vintage is a broad wine, dominated by black grapes. It is a lovely wine at the dawn of its expression. The 2008 rosé is subtle and graceful in its aromas, with red berries, candied citrus and a hint of undergrowth. The palate is slender with a bubble that coats without excess. The red fruit flavours complete the tasting.

You will taste 4 cuvées of Champagne Charles Heidsieck throughout the concert.

Here are the 4 selected cuvées:

- Brut Réserve

- Rose Réserve

- Blanc de Blancs

- Blanc des Millenaires 2006

The musician: Bruno Fontaine

Born in the Vosges, Bruno Fontaine is a pianist, conductor, musical director, arranger and composer of film music. Yes, all that, and all of it beautifully.

Bruno began playing the piano at the age of four, and as he played a lot and was already very good, he entered the classes of Pierre Sancan and Jean Hubeau at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at the age of 11, where he won five first prizes four years later.

After a stay in the United States where he met Don Costa, arranger for Frank Sinatra, among others, he began a collaboration with the American soprano Julia Migenes in 1984, becoming her arranger and musical director, as he would later do for Johnny Hallyday and Mylène Farmer. In 1992, he was the musical director and arranger for Ute Lemper's album Illusions, which won the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles-Cros. His arrangements and compositions for Alain Resnais' On connaît la chanson and Pas sur la bouche earned him nominations at the Victoires de la musique and the Césars.

As a composer, he has written numerous film scores, regularly collaborating with Jeanne Labrune. At the request of Jérôme Deschamps, he also composed the Hulophonies, two symphonic suites inspired by the music of Jacques Tati's films, premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. More recently, he composed the music for Cavaliers seuls by Delphine Gleize and Jean Rochefort, an actor with whom he performed in Heureux, a show about Erik Satie.

Also in the theatre, he was musical director of L'Opéra de quat'sous by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, directed by Laurent Pelly, at the Comédie-Française from April to July 2011. He also collaborated in the musical conception of James Thierrée's last two shows, Au revoir, parapluie and Raoul.

In parallel, he pursues a career as a solo pianist with ensembles as varied as the Ensemble orchestral de Paris, the Orchestre de la Suisse romande, the Ysaye Quartet, Michel Portal, Ophélie Gaillard, Sonia Wieder-Atherton, Yutaka Sado, Philippe Bender, Paolo Conte, Mísia, etc.