Piper-Hiedsieck
Rare Brut Millesime
Champagne
2008

The producer

A well-known Champagne house based in Reims, France. It is renowned for producing high-quality Champagne. The history of Piper-Heidsieck dates back to 1785 when Florens-Louis Heidsieck founded the company. He was a young German winemaker who travelled to France to establish his Champagne business.

In 1839, Christian Heidsieck, Florens-Louis's nephew, formed a partnership with Henri-Guillaume Piper, and the Champagne house became known as Piper-Heidsieck. Over the years, Piper-Heidsieck has gained a reputation for its elegant and consistent Champagne offerings. The brand has been associated with luxury and has been a favorite among celebrities and royals.

The wine

Piper-Heidsieck's "Rare Brut Millesime" is a prestigious and highly-regarded Champagne produced by the house. It is known for its complexity, richness, and elegance. The "Rare" Champagne is typically released as a vintage wine, which means it is made from grapes harvested in a single exceptional year.

Rare Brut Millesime is celebrated for its depth and complexity. It's a Champagne that often benefits from aging, allowing the flavors and aromas to evolve and develop further. The balance of fruit, acidity, and aging characteristics make it a sought-after choice for special occasions and celebrations.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.