Champagne Blanc des Millénaires 2007 Charles Heidsieck

There are some numbers universally considered special and among them, seven is recognized as the perfect number. It symbolizes unity, wholeness and completeness. 7 are the days of the week, the colors of the rainbow, the chakras. 7 are the Pleiades, the wonders of the ancient and modern world, the kings of Rome. 7 are the virtues, the arms of the Jewish Menorah candlestick and the attributes of Hallah. And again 7 are the symbolic metals of the alchemical transmutation path to obtain the philosopher's stone. It is an initiatory number, a sign of balance between the earth and the sky: an alliance of opposites that creates perfection. For Charles Heidsieck, the seventh release of Blanc des Millénaires is 2007. The perfect number embodied in a new bottle. A masterpiece.
The 2007 vintage was anachronistic in the profile of the wine: it recalls the profile of the previous decades with contained maturity and pungent acidity. This year aroused great concern at the beginning because everything was so anticipated. Spring and the consequent flowering was brought forward. Flowering began on May 25th. The inclement weather made it difficult to care for the vine, but, at the same time, it meant that good acidity that determines its longevity. The summer was quite cool, combined with heavy rains just before the harvest, which made us forget the scorching summers of previous years. This weather profile was exactly what distinguished the great Blanc de Blancs of the 1980s and 1990s. The weight of the bunches was astounding, an increase of over 25% compared to the average weight of the previous vintages, but at the same time a good sugar and acid balance (with 9.5 degrees for 8.5 g of total acidity) and values relatively low pH. This unusual but extraordinary vintage for Chardonnay has a wonderful future ahead of it; in fact Charles Heidsieck chose it as the seventh cuvée of the Blanc des Millénaires.

The Maison has a long tradition in the production of Blanc de Blancs. The Chef de Caves has decided to highlight the best Chardonnays in a cuvée called Blanc des Milénaires. The first Blanc des Millénaires was launched in 1993 and established the particular balance the Maison sought: five villages for perfect balance and unrivaled texture that gradually "melts into the wine" as it matures. There are only seven thousandths that have been created to date under this label: 1983, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2004, 2006 and now 2007. Thanks to the combination of the great Chardonnay and the extreme care in production, 2022 marks the seventh exit of the Blanc des Millénaires.