Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millenaires 2014

2014 Blanc des Millénaires is only the 8th vintage of this wine released since the inaugural wine in 1983. Let’s not beat around the bush – is a spectacular Champagne. To put this wine to the test, I opened my sample bottle and tasted it with four wine trade Titans. A buyer, a retailer, a journalist and an importer were all struck dumb by this wine. I told them they were not allowed to spread the word until today – which as I understand it is the release date.

I set the scene for this tasting by opening a magnum of another famous Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru before pouring Blanc de Millénaires to ensure that everyone’s’ palates were in match fit condition to assess our hero wine. After the cooing and nodding abated regarding the much-loved magnum, I popped the cork on BdM and poured one of the most colourless Champagnes I can remember. And then the magic started.

After the sensual creaminess of our ‘apéritif Blanc de Blancs’ it was immediately apparent that ’14 Blanc de Millénaires was cut from very different cloth. This is a raspingly refreshing wine. It is so precision-cut you might want to wear gloves. There is no doubt this unnervingly keen creation is not one for beginners. And if you feel a tear fighting to set free from a loose duct, just let it go. This wine is all about emotion and you must be leaden-hearted for it not to move you profoundly with its laser-sighted flavours and extraordinary tension. Flavour-wise it is incredible how so much direction and decisiveness can emerge from such a seemingly demure wine. Approaching its tenth birthday, and with eight of these years spent on its lees, it seems like this wine has been chiselled out of a gleamingly white chalk sarcophagus as it sits naked in the glass, and there is so much potential here it takes the breath away.

My intrepid group could not summon the energy to scratch our collective heads. There was just a collegiate sense of disbelief and then, a couple of minutes later, an exhalation of exultation – a synchronous moan of pure joy that somehow kicked us all back into the moment, granting us permission to acknowledge what had just happened. Given the experience around the table, we were of one voice – this is a landmark vintage for Heidsieck’s incredible Chardonnay and while it is straight-jacketed, brutally honest, and epically long, there are just enough white florals, tender sablé tones and dramatic citrus zestiness, to signal that this wine will be nothing short of era-defining given time. 19.5+/20 (Drink 2028 – 2045)

The only Blanc des Millénaires made during Thierry Roset's brief tenure as cellar master of Charles Heidsieck before his untimely death after the 2014 harvest. The wine was blended by Cyril Brun. It has seen less time on lees than the previous 2007 and 2006 wines – between eight and nine years rather than 12 – but the decision feels apt for this beautifully delicate, bright and serene edition of one of Champagne's top, if lesser-known, prestige Blanc de Blancs, emphasising purity over creamy richness. There are plenty of ripe aromatics, with fuzzy fragrant apricots, mandarin and even some fresh mango playing with hazelnut and coffee macaron complexity just starting to fire up. There's a quiet, calm insistence to the palate, more similar to the 2004 than the tension and drama of the 2007 or the generosity of the 2006. It seems set to be one of the vintage's top performers. Chardonnay from Cramant, Avize, Oger, Le-Mesnil-sur-Oger and Vertus, entirely vinified in stainless steel with full malolactic fermentation. Dosage: 9g/L.