Champagne Millésime 2013 – Rare Champagne

To produce the Champagne Millésime 2008 Rare Champagne the first fermentation took place in stainless-steel tanks. Once completed, the wine was racked and underwent full malolactic fermentation. Rare Millésime 2008 marries 70% Chardonnay grapes, selected mainly from the Montagne de Reims region and 30% Pinot Noir in a blend of eleven crus. The wine was kept on its lees 11 years before disgorgement, in November 2019, when a dosage of around 10g/l was added.

As the guardian of the Rare Champagne style, Régis Camus selects the vineyards according to their expression rather than their rank in the scale of Premiers and Grand Crus. This blending approach contributes to the complex, distinguished, and yet pure style of Rare Champagne. He thinks outside the box, choosing Chardonnay grapes from the Montagne de Reims, more traditionally recognised for Pinot Noir, giving the wine freshness and precise minerality. He prefers the Pinot Noir grapes from the Montagne de Reims as well (for instance Verzy or Aÿ) for their sheer intensity and powerful silky texture.

Rare Champagne transforms the obstacles of nature and glorifies the personality of an exceptional year – singular, unexpected, or wayward into an unrivalled vintage. Over the last forty years, Rare Champagne has declared only 11 Vintages (1976, 1979, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008). All in limited series, Rare Champagne lives up to its name. Until March 2022, Champagne legend Régis Camus was the Chef de Cave, whose meticulous winemaking has made him Sparkling Winemaker of the Year at the IWC eight times and in 2019 the CSWWC rewarded him of a Life Achievement award. Emilien Boutillat, IWC Sparkling Wine Maker of the Year 2021, is now charged with safeguarding Rare Champagne unique signature and leading the House into the future. Rare Champagne pays homage to the glory days of the royal court at Versailles when founder Florens-Louis Heidsieck presented his first ever ‘prestige cuvée’ to Marie Antoinette in 1785, declaring that he wanted to make a ‘cuvée worthy of a queen’. A century later a great tradition was founded when Russian Tsar Alexander III’s jeweller – a certain Pierre-Karl Fabergé – designed an opulent, bejewelled bottle for the house. The unique bottle shape is adorned with its distinctive gold casing, as a tribute to its glamorous beginnings. The current vintage available is 2008.