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2006 Piper-Heidsieck Rare

France Direct
Expected Arrival:
10 weeks from purchase date

Removed from a professional wine storage facility; Purchased at retail

8 available
Bid *
Ends Sunday, 7pm Pacific

RATINGS

97+ Jeb Dunnuck

...brilliant notes of stone fruits, toasted brioche, white flowers, and obvious minerality...this beauty has a wonderful mid-palate, a racy mousse.

96Wine 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.

95Wine Enthusiast

Great drive and energy comes from the ripe fruit with its hints of almonds and toast.

94The Wine Advocate

...rich...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...nicely balanced...

93Vinous / IWC

...racy and polished to the core. Baked apple tart, apricot, lemon confit, vanillin and brioche infuse the 2006 with striking aromatic intensity and creaminess... Sumptuous and forward...

17+ Jancis Robinson

Very powerful nose – and again quite powerful and broad and rich on the palate... Bitter orange-peel note. Long.

REGION

France, Champagne

Champagne is a small, beautiful wine growing region northeast of Paris whose famous name is misused a million times a day. As wine enthusiasts and all French people are well aware, only sparkling wines produced in Champagne from grapes grown in Champagne can be called Champagne. Sparkling wines produced anywhere else, including in other parts of France, must be called something besides Champagne. Champagne producers are justifiably protective of their wines and the prestige associated with true Champagne. Though the region was growing grapes and making wines in ancient times, it began specializing in sparkling wine in the 17th century, when a Benedictine monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon formulated a set guidelines to improve the quality of the local sparkling wines. Despite legends to the contrary, Dom Pérignon did not “invent” sparkling wine, but his rules about aggressive pruning, small yields and multiple pressings of the grapes were widely adopted, and by the 18th and 19th centuries Champagne had become the wine of choice in fashionable courts and palaces throughout Europe. Today there are 75,000 acres of vineyards in Champagne growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Champagne’s official appellation system classifies villages as Grand Cru or Premier Cru, though there are also many excellent Champagnes that simply carry the regional appellation. Along with well-known international Champagne houses there are numerous so-called “producer Champagnes,” meaning wines made by families who, usually for several or more generations, have worked their own vineyards and produced Champagne only from their own grapes.