2004 Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millenaires Champagne 750 ml

Champagne Charles Heidsieck is the smallest of Champagne’s “Grandes Marques,” the most recognizable houses. It is “The best and the most famous of the three Heidsieck houses,” according to champagne authority Richard Juhlin.

Heidsieck’s top wine, the Blanc des Millénaires, (“White of the Millennials”), was introduced in 1983 to honor the firm’s incredible, thousand-year-old chalk caves acquired in 1867. Today, they are a UNESCO world heritage site.

Blanc des Millénaires has been made only six times, including 1983. Heidseck produces the wine not just in great vintages, but in years where the Chardonnay in the Côte des Blancs villages of Cramant, Avize, Oger, Le Mesnil, and Vertus TRULY excel. No other house’s tête de cuvée is as selective. Even the mythical Salon has been produced twice as often in the same time period. As Heidsieck’s managing director Stephen Leroux told Forbes, “This philosophy remains simple: producing—or trying to produce—the very best of what Champagne from Chardonnay can reveal.”

The 2004 Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires had a long, 14-year slumber deep in the towering chalk “Crayères” before its disgorgement and release. 2004 was an exceptional year in the Côte des Blancs: an abundant harvest with perfectly ripened fruit. The wine is an absolute shock to the senses, filled with creamy citrus peel and mandarin notes, along with the house’s trademark toastiness, which has been enhanced by a long time in bottle. 

If you can’t get enough of the leesy, citrusy, custardy indulgence of Grand Cru White Burgundy or wines like Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne and Dom Pérignon, this rare bubbly will be an absolute thrill.