🍾 Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires

Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires is the vintage Champagne line of the house Charles Heidsieck in Reims (Marne): each release carries the harvest year on its label. Each year has its own page on this site: 2017, 2014, 1995.

According to the house, this 100 % Chardonnay prestige cuvée from the Côte des Blancs was first presented in 1993 with the 1983 vintage; ten vintages have been released: 1983, 1985, 1990, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2014 and 2017.

Charles Heidsieck is a house from Reims founded, according to the house, in 1851; its wines mature in the ancient chalk cellars of the Crayères, 30 m underground.

The boundaries of the Champagne area were set by a law of 6 May 1919: parts of the Marne, Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne departments. The designation’s specification allows seven grape varieties, dominated by Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; grapes are picked as whole bunches, that is by hand, and the yield is limited to 10,400 kg per hectare.

According to the Comité Champagne, Champagne is served chilled to 8–10 °C, and bottles are kept in the dark at a steady 10–15 °C, without vibration. An opened bottle is best closed with a sparkling-wine stopper and kept cold.

Under the rules of the Champagne designation, vintage Champagne is aged for at least 36 months before sale; the bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle.

Why it matters to you. The year on the label is the harvest year, so different years of the same line are different wines. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.