I love Piper. Piper-Heidsieck, Piper Sonoma, bring it over and I’ll finish it off. Today my wife and I tried Piper-Heidsieck Rosé Sauvage Brut Champagne. Bought it at Goody Goody for $50. Was it worth it? Read on friend…
Absolutely it was worth it! I was a little apprehensive, because around the $50-$75 price point is where most experts agree you stop paying for wine quality and start paying for label exclusivity. I drink a ton of $20-$25 sparklers, and rarely venture beyond around $40. My higher end sparklers are Iron Horse, Taittinger, and Piper-Heidsieck, all around $35-$40 (less if you can catch them on super sale). I also drink a couple different sparklers that are quite inexpensive: $9 Enrico Cava Rose (available at Goody Goody) and Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut (available most everywhere for $13. Some places have it for $15. I think that’s a good indicator you need to find a better wine store). I had never ventured beyond $50 per bottle bubbly. Frankly I was afraid of being disappointed. You see, I want expensive bubbly to be fantastic and worth every penny, much in the same way I want Ferrari’s to be fantastically fast and exotic. You see, I can’t afford a Ferrari. But there are ‘weekend warrior’ programs where you can drive one on a track for a day. And there are places like Vegas where you can rent one for a day. I hope to do that one day, and when I do, I want to be overwhelmed by it. I want it to be so moving and exciting that I feel more alive for having done it. Similarly, I can’t drink high-end bubbly every day. But like that rental exotic I can afford it occasionally. And when I do, I want it to be a stirring, memorable moment. I want it to show me what wine can be like when it’s tirelessly worked on, cared for, massaged and worried about. Ferrari goes kind of bananas over what their exhaust note sounds like. Millions of dollars, countless hours of computer analysis and engineer attention go toward making it about as perfect as it can be. Anyone who doesn’t think producers of high-end bubbly go through the same gyrations should spend a week underground as a riddler. You can taste the effort in the yeasty brioche notes. You can detect the subtle weave of dozens of blended base wines even if you can single out only a few of them. And the lingering finish seems to hang on the palette like the high unwavering note of an opera singer. I put sparklers at the top of the wine pyramid, and I hope I never feel like I’ve drunk the bottle that represents the zenith. I lust for that certain ethereal zestiness that is bottle of good bubbly, and even if the bulk of my cellar is pedestrian yet high-quality I look forward to that day in a Ferrari, that one or two days a year I crack open as good a bottle as I can afford. That’s why I want it to be fantastic. I want to feel like even at $75 a bottle that it’s still a great value, still a great decision. $50 for mediocre wine would be foolishness. $50 spent on a bottle that from which every sip makes you smile is a bargain. I hope to eventually get a bottle of Cristal, of Krug, of Veuve Grande Dame. I have to save up for these. When I do get to buy one, I want to be bowled over by it and wish I had money for more. In the same way, I hoped this Piper-Heidsieck would be better than any of my ‘everyday’ sparklers. I wasn’t disappointed.
The color was a beautiful hue of strawberry-violet. The nose was inviting, complex and polished. Fruity, floral, yeasty, and rich. The wine was all this on the palette. Many strands of flavors- bramble and red fruit, floral notes, kind of an almond nuttiness and layers of fresh baked yeasty goodness. Long, lingering finish. Beautiful. Definitely and distinctly superior to my favorite $40 bottle, Piper-Heidsieck Brut. This was a complete score, a solid choice, and worth every penny. It makes me very excited about my New Year’s eve bubbly: Veuve-Clicquot Rosé. Check back on the 1st of January to see if it was $30 better than the Piper. Cheers!
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