Rare | Reims

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 12 Vintages (1976, 1979, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012). 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.

The wine is born out of a struggle with nature – the 1976 vintage followed a period of exceptional drought and a terrible black frost preceded the 1985 vintage. The vineyards are chosen based on their individual characteristics rather than the rank of Premiers and Grands Crus, making wines which are complex, distinguished, and pure expressions of their vintages.

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.

RARE CHAMPAGNE