The 2017 vintage of Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires is only the ninth to be released. The previous vintages were 1983, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2014. 2017 departs from its predecessors in just one respect—unusually, it contains fruit from Chouilly.
The wine was presented in London by Stephen Leroux, longstanding managing director of Champagne Charles Heidsieck, and Emilien Erard, who took over as cellar master in July 2025, having joined in summer 2018, just in time to organize a hugely important task—bottling the 2017 Blanc des Millénaires. No pressure at all, then.
A chaotic year
It was Cyril Brun who had blended this prestige blanc de blancs from the 2017 vintage, but Erard, with vintages at Ayala, Palmer, and Billecart-Salmon under his belt, remembered the “chaotic and contrasting” year of 2017 well: “Spring was great, flowering was good, early summer was cool and rainy. We had a lot of rain,” he emphasizes. Indeed, 2017 was a real wash-out for the red grapes, which struggled with rot. “But Chardonnay was spared,” Erard said, “especially in the Côte des Blancs, because the chalk is so well-drained. It was spared a lot of the mildew and oidium” that was such a plague for Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. He remembered that August continued “with successions of cool and hot weather” that, in the end, brought a hailstorm to Cramant.
A new departure
This is where 2017 departs from its predecessors. Blanc des Millénaires is usually a blend of five fifths from five villages—Avize, Cramant, Oger, Le Mesnil, and Vertus—not always exactly, but this composition is the rough idea, even if not a recipe. In 2017, the Cramant portion was replaced by fruit from Chouilly. The portions are less exact this time, with Le Mesnil taking up 30% of the blend, followed by Vertus. “Chouilly has a little more gourmandise, a little more generosity,” Erard noted, as the 2017 vintage displayed “a lot of tension and freshness.” “Tension, minerality, and saltiness” were the attributes contributed by Avize and Oger.
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The winemaking,in stainless steel only, underlines this brightness. The wine was disgorged in July 2025, after seven years on lees, with a dosage of 9g/l. It is a beautiful follow-up to its eight precursors, carrying the reductive, smoldering signature of Charles Heidsieck that I always love so much. It is surprisingly open already.
Tasting
2017 Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires (12% ABV)
Wonderfully evocative reduction suggests smoky shortbread and an intriguing mix of dried corn husk, wet oystershell, and smoky brine. More air then introduces ripe Amalfi lemon and fine overtones that sway from green, fresh moss, to passion fruit, and back again, always with a salty, oceanic edge. The body is surprisingly rounded and smooth, while sleek in outline and shape, holding generous, almost juicy, fruit. The fine mousse brings luminosity rather than creaminess, underlining the richness that seems down more to fruit than to autolysis. It is the shape, the movement of the wine, that is so arresting: decidedly aromatic, this expands and beguiles, while leaving such a lasting, almost solid, salty flavor on the palate. This has lovely balance and such joyful energy. | 95
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