2008 Rare Champagne Brut Millesime Magnum (Gift Box)

A restrained Champagne that displays the producer’s style quite clearly. On the nose it shows coconut, white chocolate, chalk, lemon zest, green apples and iodine. Amazing white chocolate flavors on the palate. It’s full-bodied and zesty with tingling bubbles and a silky texture in the finish. Great tension and complexity, with a lemony finish. Disgorged in 2023. Drink or hold.

Like a stallion out of the gate, this shows an initial explosion of power through mouthwatering flavours and fine texture before quickly settling into an elegant gait. The racy acidity is seamlessly knit, buoying the lacy mousse and flavours of cassis, toasted brioche and tangerine, with accents of candied ginger, hazelnut and fleur de sel lingering on the long, creamy finish.

Drink now through 2035

70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir. From grand cru villages.

I invested in three bottles of Rare 2008 a while back. Based on this evidence, I am very happy with that decision! Still very closed and tight, this needs 3–5 years. Great complexity and depth, once the wine unfurls in the glass. Very fine mousse, long finish. A fine wine.

The 2008 Champagne Rare is luxurious with aromas of graham cracker, honeysuckle, quince, and orange zest. It is round and opulent, with a fine and pillowy mousse, and retains freshness throughout, with apricot and yellow flowers. It is impressive and long, and fully luxurious. Drinking well now, it is sure to hold its own for years to come.

With over two thirds of Chardonnay from Avize and Oger in the Côte des Blancs and Villers-Marmery on the Montagne de Reims, this always comes with freshness, elegance and sweet, exuberant toasty notes. In the cool 2008 vintage, Verzy Pinot Noir further amplifies the notions of linearity and tension, making this a hugely slowly ageing Rare. Shiny lemon colour. The nose is instantly impressive: deliciously toasty, with ginger and coffee playing with pineapple, blood orange and yellow peach. With time in glass, it opens up gloriously. It is still holding back a lot on the nose, but it appears utterly sophisticated already. There is such silkiness to the linear, driven, super-saline palate. Really youthful still, this is a magnificent Rare. Dosage 10g/l

This has fantastic concentration, with notes of seashells, waxed and preserved lemons, blanched almonds, toasted coconuts and a smoky touch like tobacco and white ash. Waxy and textured, with very fine, almost imperceptible bubbles. Long, mineral and serious finish. Still tight. 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir, mainly from Montagne de Reims. Disgorged end of 2022. 8g/L dosage. Tasted from Magnum, which will be launched later this year. 

Drink or hold

70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir. 100% grand cru with the Chardonnay from Avize, Oger and Villers-Marmery and the Pinot Noir from Verzy. Aged on lees for ten years. Disgorged in November 2019 with a dosage of 8.5 g/l.

Smoky, Chardonnay-dominant nose. Lots of age on this, yet with an undertow of citrus freshness. Spreads right across the palate with both depth and finesse. Shows off the density and solidity of the vintage. Good for drinking now.

Drink 2020 - 2030

Disgorged in June 2022 with a dosage of nine grams per liter, the 2008 Rare Millésime—tasted from bottle three years post-disgorgement—is stepping into its true enjoyment window. It opens with aromas of lemon oil, burnt buttered toast and roasted pineapple with a deft touch of smoky reduction. On the palate, it is medium- to full-bodied, taut and comparatively lean relative to the 2012 and 2006 renditions, driven by an incisive spine of acidity and pillowy mousse but offering less in the way of texture. Stylistically akin to the 2013 but with cloudier skies and cooler nights contributing to an even more chiseled profile, yet simultaneously to a lower maturity.

On opening, it shows a strict, minerally face - a good reminder of just how long-lived this wine will be. Given an hour in the glass, it begins to unfold, revealing real complexity and depth. The fruit leans towards green apple, yellow pear and subtle tropical touches of pineapple and lychee, before brioche and a gentle coffee note join in with further air. Pure power and concentration, with a structure that will only gain in detail and finesse over time.

A structured and powerful vintage that is superbly balanced. Toasted coconut, grey wisps of smoke and crushed stones overlay mango and pineapple, vanilla and spice. The finish is so salty, mouthfilling, surging, expansive and growing in the mouth until it folds up neatly on a chalky citrus finish. A fresh and cool vintage that has produced some exceptional wines. Tasted from magnum.

Rare Champagne boasts an illustrious past, with its first vintage presented to Marie Antoinette in 1785. The wine is produced in very limited quantities and is restricted to exceptional years, with only 11 vintages being declared over the past four decades of production. 70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir from selected Grand Cru vineyards. 

Simon Field MW: Gentle bead, lovely evolved notes of hazelnut, even a hint of praline, enrobed and ennobled by firm acidity and a persuasive finish. 

Alan Bednarski: Great, pure wine with still-fresh zesty flavours, delicate palate and sweet yeast notes, with a long flavourful finish of ripe melon.

Tim Hall: A challenging, pressing start, wanting to overwhelm with a shimmering and sharp attack, but shows intensity on the palate to match. Lovely lemon-apple notes and tempered texture.

Drink 2021 - 2028

The newly released 2008 Brut Cuvée Rare is very promising, unwinding in the glass with a youthfully reserved nose of citrus oil, crisp green apple, freshly baked bread, iodine and oyster shell, as well as some rather herbaceous characteristics that depress my score a little, even if I suspect that they will resolve with a bit more bottle age. Medium to full-bodied, incisive and tightly wound, if the 2006 vintage was gourmand and demonstrative, the 2008 is slower to show all its cards. Built around racy acids and complemented by a pillowy mousse, this rendition of Cuvée Rare will reward a few years more on cork.

Drink 2022 - 2045