Piper Heidsieck Hors-Serie Champagne 1982
Piper Heidsieck’s Hors-Serie Champagne 1982 was left on lees for a remarkable 39 years. It’s from a Champagne vintage of high renown; it’s a vintage often listed as among the Champagne region’s best. It’s a 60/40 blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, though interestingly it only received a 4 grams per litre dosage, which is low. The asking price in Australia is $1000. This is only the second release of a Hors-Serie Champagne – we reviewed the 1972 Hors-Serie Champagne on The Winefront when it was released. This 1982 release has been in Australia for most of the past year. Only a very small number of bottles were imported but if you want a bottle, there are still bottles available.
The thing is that this wine, from a great vintage, was left on lees for most of its life, and was kept in the Piper Heidsieck cellar (of course) throughout that time. What this effectively means is that it’s been given every possible chance to be kept fresh, as the decades have unfolded.
I was fortunate enough to score a bottle. It felt wrong to simply drink and taste it myself, so I’ve been looking for a way to share it. Last Friday I opened this bottle and drank it with dumplings as the accompaniment, and with two of my favourite wine industry colleagues as company. It’s a wine. What is it, forty-two years old? It’s both fresh and honeyed at once, it still has plenty of zip, it’s refreshing, and yet of course it’s rolled with complex flavour. It doesn’t offer a mind-bending experience but with every sip you’re impressed. There are of course a lot of famous wines out of France from the 1982 vintage but this Hors-Serie has taken time in its stride so effortlessly that you’d be hard-pressed to find another 1982 vintage wine in such spritely good condition.