Personal advice
Rare 2008 won the Top 100 tasting by Fine Champagne Magazine and Tasting Book and was named Champagne of the Year. In October, the wonderful aromas it showed in its first years under the influence of lees aging were still being described here. That initial drinking window has now closed. Even long aeration brings very little at the moment. Whether three, five or ten years of bottle age would be appropriate? The optimal maturity period depends on how mature one likes their Champagne, how good the storage conditions are – and with today’s perspective it is no longer possible to predict it precisely anyway.
Rare is made with 70% Chardonnay, which comes not only from the Grand Cru villages Le Mesnil, Chouilly and Avize, but above all from the particularly powerful Chardonnay parcels in Trépail, Villers-Marméry and Vaudemange in the Grande Montagne de Reims.
After many years of building Rare into its own luxury brand, it is now noticeable that Rare is produced in a classic, mineral, very structured style. The influence of lees aging on the young wine is significantly lower than before, and the first drinking window after dégorgement is correspondingly much shorter. This puts Rare in clear contrast, for example, to Blanc des Millénaires, which already shows fruity charm when young.
A glance at the Alfavin cellar
A glance at the Alfavin cellar
A glance at the Alfavin Cellar