If you are looking for an excellent quality champagne without breaking the bank, than Piper-Heidsieck Brut NV (Non Vintage) is for you.
Piper-Heidsieck is one of the "grand marques" of champagne. Its an old established champagne house (founded 1785) based at the home of champagne - Rhiems ... Read review
Advantages: Good value for money and fresh, appealing taste Disadvantages: If you can afford to buy better, buy better
...without breaking the bank, than Piper-Heidsieck Brut NV (Non Vintage) is for you.
Piper-Heidsieck is one of the "grand marques" of champagne. Its an old established champagne house (founded 1785) based at the home of champagne - Rhiems in France.
The NV costs around £16 a bottle UK retail, which is more than supermarket champagne, but you are getting a significant notch up in terms of quality for that extra ... ...trying to choose a champagne for my wedding toasts last year. I bought a variety of champagnes and good quality sparkling wines, ranging in price from around £11 a bottle up to £26 a bottle. I then arranged a blind tasting with freinds. The bottles were all disguised and they were tasted with a view to what would go best at a summer wedding.
Guess what? The Piper-Heidseck won. So I was off to Majestic (see my other review) to order ... more
If you are looking for an excellent quality champagne without breaking the bank, than Piper-Heidsieck Brut NV (Non Vintage) is for you.
Piper-Heidsieck is one of the "grand marques" of champagne. Its an old established champagne house (founded 1785) based at the home of champagne - Rhiems in France.
The NV costs around £16 a bottle UK retail, which is more than supermarket champagne, but you are getting a significant notch up in terms of quality for that extra couple of pounds a bottle.
I was trying to choose a champagne for my wedding toasts last year. I bought a variety of champagnes and good quality sparkling wines, ranging in price from around £11 a bottle up to £26 a bottle. I then arranged a blind tasting with freinds. The bottles were all disguised and they were tasted with a view to what would go best at a summer wedding.
Guess what? The Piper-Heidseck won. So I was off to Majestic (see my other review) to order it for the wedding toasts.
Why did the Piper come out top? It is a very fresh tasting wine. None of that richness that drinkers of champagnes such as Moet and Bollinger will be familiar with. In fact, I'd say it was more similar to a very good New World sparkling wine. It also has great bubbles! You might think this sounds odd, but really, the bubbles are very small and so they result in a smooth creamy flavour across the tongue. So you end up with a champagne that is fresh, yet not acidic, dry, and yet with a nice tang of tropical type fruits. As an all rounder I now rate it as the ideal champagne to use when its a celebration, especially if you've guests who think they don't much like champagne (because they've been served acid fizz somewhere and understandably think all champagne is the same).
Why were the other wines in the tasting not so good? The other wines tasted included Moet & Chandon NV, which came second, then Tattinger NV and then, perhaps surprisingly Broussault, which at about £12 a bottle was one of the cheapest champagnes we tasted. Moet NV costs around £18 a bottle so would have been more expensive. I also think people like Moet often simply because they are used to the taste, and people who are strangers to it often don't like it. And although I love drinking Moet myself, this was a consideration. Tattinger NV is personally my favourite NV champagne. It shares a lot of the same characteristics as Piper but at about £4 a bottle more expensive, I couldn't really justify the extra cost on this occasion.
Piper Hiedsieck have a new website but there is not much there yet: www.piper-heidsieck.com/
In terms of vintage, I've tried the 1995 and that is certainly very nice. It's got more of a biscuity type flavour. Costs around £40 a bottle.
