2006 rare, champagne

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Bottle size (ML)

Why We're Buying

Champagne doesn't get much better than this. Piper-Heidsieck Rare Brut Millésime is a traditionally styled sparkling wine with notes of honeycomb, brioche, blackberries, and lemon compote. The vibrant personality and effortless balance lead into a lingering finish that refuses to leave the taste buds. The use of the word ‘rare’ in 2008 Piper-Heidsieck Rare Brut Millésime is an understatement. Over five decades, the estate only produced 11 vintages of this extraordinary wine. The 2008 growing season is widely considered one of the best on record, with transcendent wines coming from across Champagne. Unlike other Piper-Heidsieck Champagnes, this offering features more chardonnay than pinot noir – 70 of the former to 30 of the latter. The wine also spent ten years on the lees, increasing its biscuity and nutty characteristics. The heavy dose of chardonnay provides an ethereal texture and mouthfeel, contributing to a structured wine with energetic acidity and notes of citrus zest, hazelnut, and toasty bread. Chalky minerality and faint wisps of flower blossoms add to the overall complexity of this sparkling wine. Interestingly, the chardonnay for this wine comes from the Montagne de Reims, a region known for its pinot noir. Historically, Piper Heidsieck has selected fruits from more traditional locations, such as the Côte des Blancs. Perhaps it is this quirk that makes the Rare Millésime unique. The drinking window for the 2008 Piper-Heidsieck Rare Brut Millésime extends into the mid-2040s, though it’s highly drinkable in youth.

Critics Scores

Vinous

Piper-Hiedsieck's 2006 Cuvée Rare is racy and polished to the core. Baked apple tart, apricot, lemon confit, vanillin and brioche infuse the 2006 with striking aromatic intensity and creaminess that builds with time in the glass. Sumptuous and forward, the 2006 offers tons of near and medium-term appeal.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2006 Brut Cuvée Rare is a rich, gourmand rendition of this prestige bottling, unfurling in the glass with a complex bouquet that mingles aromas of yellow orchard fruit, pears and fresh pineapple with nuances of buttered toast, iodine and smoke. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, broad and textural, while remaining fresh and surprisingly tight-knit at the core, concluding with a long and saline finish. There's sufficient structural tension here to promise more than a decade's graceful evolution, and although this is nicely balanced, it's a generous, sun kissed rendition of the Cuvée Rare that reflects the warm vintage.

Wine Spectator

Aromas and flavors of toasted brioche and grilled nut enrich the yellow plum, nectarine and grated ginger notes of this rich and creamy Champagne. Finely woven and beautifully integrated, with a firm backbone of mouthwatering acidity providing precise balance for the lush range of flavor.

Jeb Dunnuck

The flagship release is the 2006 Champagne Rare, a 70/30 split of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that’s a cellar selection from 8 different Grand Cru vineyards. Tight, backward, and straight-up structured, it offers brilliant notes of stone fruits, toasted brioche, white flowers, and obvious minerality. Needing plenty of air to show at its best, this beauty has a wonderful mid-palate, a racy mousse, and the balance and class to cruise for over two decades in cool cellars.