A taste of Rare Champagne with Régis Camus

Last year, Piper-Heidsieck tweaked its strategy at the prestige end by announcing that its ultra-bijou Rare Champagne would no longer fly the Piper flag, henceforth to be sold and marketed as an entity in its own right.

To underline the diaspora, it was also announced that hugely lauded Piper-Heidsieck winemaker Régis Camus was to accompany the new venture, the role of chef de caves at Piper to be filled by Emilien Boutillat. All in all a logical and very sensible move – Piper, after all, is dominated by Pinot Noir while the Rare cuvée is made with 70% Chardonnay.

Scroll down for Simon Field MW’s top Rare Champagnes

Commercially this has been deemed to be sensible too. Rare, despite its name, is an award-winning success story, its putative rarity a topic for debate. Whenever anyone asks how much Rare is made, Régis will wag his finger, smile and then change the subject. In other words, it has achieved something of the status of a more expensive rival to Dom Pérignon, the exact volume of its production shrouded in mystery. This, of course, leads to speculation and more publicity and, it would seem, even greater success. A virtuous circle for sure but only, most importantly, because it’s an extremely good wine.

The latest release, the 2006 vintage, is the ninth manifestation of the label, which, parenthetically remains virtually unchanged, with only the discrete deletion of ‘Piper-Heidsieck’ from the golden filigree of its floral design. In addition, there have been two younger rosés, from the 2007 and 2008 vintages, the latter of which is also making its UK debut. Finally, and absurdly rare – and therefore, in this instance at least, very well named, the zéro dosage Le Secret, which is virtually impossible to find.

The Rare philosophy is fairly straightforward. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation with no oak intervention, and the style marries 70% Chardonnay from both the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Blancs with 30% Pinot Noir from the most famous Montagne villages. Significantly only 5-6% of the fruit is from vineyards that are owned, giving Régis carte blanche to use his unparalleled network of contacts to select fruit which is, quite simply, the best of the best – there are no compromises at all here.

The aim is to make a definitive statement of purity, freshness, precision and power, and Régis manages to achieve this with disarming regularity, which is in itself a feat of unparalleled and therefore extremely rare brilliance!

See Simon Field MW’s top Rare Champagnes

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