Seven vintages of Rare Champagne with cellar master Emilien Boutillat – Tuesday 20th January

While the wine’s originator, the Heidsieck group, claims Rare Champagne was first inspired by the enthusiastic patronage of Marie Antoinette in the 18th century, in reality the cuvée came into being in 1985. It was then that the first vintage – the 1976 – was unveiled at Versailles Palace, in a bottle decorated by jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels.

Despite such profile, for some time Rare flew slightly under the radar, released only 14 times in 40 years, and, in the words of Decanter’s Champagne specialist Tom Hewson ‘something of a challenger brand in the hegemony of prestige cuvée Champagne’. That has changed a little since Piper-Heidsieck took the brand out of the main group structure and established Rare as its own entity, managed and presented entirely independently, in 2018.

Still made by Piper chef de cave Emilien Boutillat, Rare is today seeing a more regular release pattern. As it continues to make its case for inclusion at the top table, we are thrilled to welcome Emilien to the Club of present a vertical tasting of the wine across its last seven releases, including two of the even rarer rosé.

Rare is made largely from Chardonnay grapes grown in the Montagne de Reims, a region traditionally more recognised for Pinot Noir, lending the wine a certain freshness and precise minerality. A modicum of Pinot adds intensity and texture. The result is a cuvée known for opulence both inside and outside the bottle, with a signature style described by Hewson as ‘plush, sometimes rather tropical and yellow-fruited, smooth-textured and reductive – and unashamedly glitzy in appearance’.

It’s a wine that very much merits consideration alongside Champagne’s top prestige cuvées, and we invite you to join Emilien – International Wine Challenge Sparkling Winemaker of the Year twice in the last five years – at a sparkling evening sure to shake off the January blues.

The wines we will be tasting:
2013 Rare Champagne
2012 Rare Champagne
2008 Rare Champagne (en magnum)
2006 Rare Champagne (en magnum)
2002 Rare Champagne
2014 Rare Champagne, Rosé
2012 Rare Champagne, Rosé

Tuesday 20th January
St. James’s Room
18:30 – Welcome reception
19:00 – Masterclass begins
20:30 – Masterclass ends

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