Piper Heidsieck Rare Millesime Champagne 2013 (3x75cl OCC)

Description

By Jeb Dunnuck in 2023 (JD98)
Originally a part of the legendary Piper-Heidsieck Champagne house, Rare is moving their Champagne Millésime to a new brand and want it to stand alone. (Think Delamotte and Salon.) The 13th vintage for this cuvée, the 2013 Champagne Millésime is a blend is 70% Chardonnay with the rest Pinot Noir, with the majority of the blend coming from the Montagne de Reims Grand Cru and Premier Cru. A bright yellow hue, its aromatics are exquisite and well-balanced, with fresh notes of key lime, candied apple, fresh croissant dough, fresh pineapple, and honeysuckle. Medium to full-bodied, it fills the palate with a rounded and supple texture and a pillowy mousse. It’s long on the palate and has a silky personality as well as a long, pristine finish. It has fantastic balance of decadence and freshness, and I could drink this all day. It’s going to have a long drinking window.

By Owen Bargreen in 2025 (OB96)
The 2013 Rare Champagne is the first release of this wine since the outstanding ’08 edition. Composed of 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir, sourced from 11 cru villages throughout the region. Toasty brioche and banana mark the nose alongside honeydew melon and salted Macadamia nut. The palate is big and burly considering the vintage. Lemon oil and dense melon flavors combine with Japanese pear, star jasmine water and shades of shortbread. Delightful now, this has the stuffing and finesse to cellar well for another fifteen plus years.

By Wine Spectator in 2023 (WS95)
An elegant, finessed Champagne, with the creamy mousse carrying a finely meshed yet concentrated range of blackberry puree and poached apricot flavors, plus blood orange peel, salted pistachio and aromatic accents of verbena, chalk and oyster shell. Shows mouthwatering acidity that carries the complex profile on the long finish. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Drink now through 2038.

By Vinous in 2024 (AG95)
The 2013 Brut Millésime, a blend of 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims, spent eight years on lees. A gorgeous whiff of reductive smokiness precedes a sea breeze and hints of toasted nuts. The palate is a picture of tautness, filigree foam, finesse and svelte poise. This wine is wonderfully pure and bracing, with hints of caramelized hazelnuts and almonds teasingly in the background, gaining definition from an oystershell saltiness. The longer you pay attention, the more happens in this wonderfully nuanced and sophisticated wine. A joy.

By Wine Advocate in 2023 (WA93)
The 2013 Brut Cuvée Rare evokes a fresh and minty bouquet complemented by aromas of white fruit, notably pear and apple, spring flowers and gentle spices with a hint of citrus. With aeration, elegant pastry notes come to the fore. On the palate, this is a moderately weighted, tension-filled yet airy Champagne with bright acidity, indicative of a cool-weather vintage, and a delicately smoky finish. Although already thoroughly enjoyable, it should age well over the next 10 years.