Rare Millésime 2012 launches into the US market

Rare Champagne has unveiled the latest incarnation of its ultra-premium cuvee, Rare Millésime 2012, into the US market.

Aged for more than a decade on the lees, the wine is a blend of 70% Chardonnay from the village of Villers-Marmery on the eastern side of the Montagne de Reims. This lends a “perfumed, exotic, and vibrant” character to the blend, the brand said, complemented by fruit from Vertus, Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, Chouilly, and Avize. Meanwhile the Pinot Noir comes from Verzy, Verzenay, Aÿ, Ambonnay, and Villedommange in the northern slopes.

According to chief winemaker Émilien Boutillat, the wine expresses “the combination of spiced aromas and tropical notes with unparalleled, indulgent precision. Its radiant and joyful minerality gracefully emerges.”

The 2012 vintage follows in the footsteps of the 2002 release “with its purity and iconic character,” Boutillat added.

Speaking to db back in December, Boutillat said that while both the 2013 and 2012 were “amazing wines, the 2012 had “another dimension that reminded [him] of the spirit of the 2002 vintage”, noting “a balance that marks it out and suggests a very long ageing potential.”

“While some believe that cooler years with more acidity age best in the long term, for me balance and the time of picking are more important,” Boutillat said at the time.

Growing season

And the 2012 growing season was something of a mixture – it started with frost, hail, and rain, only to be followed by a “warm and luminous” summer, which, though resulting in low yields, helped producing grapes of “remarkable concentration… and “extraordinary” quality.

It has been released in the US, at the suggested retail price of $250, at  fine wine retailers nationwide and online at Noble Wine Merchants.

Rare Champagne launched its 2013 Rare Millésime in June 2023

Rare Champagne, which was part of the Piper-Heidsieck until it laucnhed as its own standalone brand in 2019 was first launched in 1985 with the 1976 vintage, and since then has only released in the best years. To date, only 14 vintages have been released in the last 40 years: 1976, 1979, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2013, with Rare Rosé Millésime also released in 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2014.

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