By Rare Champagne
Millesime 2012

Wine Description
Gifted with an unrivaled freshness, each Rare Millesime is an unconventional wine, always released in limited series. Rare Champagne glorifies the personality of an exceptional year - singular, unexpected or wayward. Rare Millesime 2012 is a well-structured vintage with playful vibrancy. It has excellent aging potential.

Vintage
There was a mixed start to 2012. The vintage looked to be challenging with winter and springtime frosts, rainfall, and hailstorms. Temperatures rose suddenly in mid-July, bringing hot, dry weather - perfect conditions for ripening. Although the yield of the harvest was low, the quality was exceptional.

Tasting Notes
Appearance: The pale gold color of Rare Millesime 2012 gleams in the glass. Its bubbles are elegant and fine.
Nose: Rich and complex. The rich aromas of the first nose suggest delicious overtones of brioche, almond, mango, guava, and bergamot. After a hint of heady florals (lilac), the nose develops spiced notes (honey, black tea, white pepper, incense and smoke).
Palate: Concentrated, flavorful, and infinitely long. The delicious mouthfeel is tangy and juicy. Citrus fruits emerge through an extremely silky texture. The exceptional length of the saline, mineral finish seems infinite.

Cellaring Potential
Lively until 2044, unparalleled thereafter.

Pairings
Sole meuniere, scallop carpaccio, poultry, langostine, grilled bream, veal fillet, gnocchi, sea bass, cod fritters, crab
[Information provided by Rare Champagne]

Wine: Piper Heidsieck Champagne Rare 2012
Score/Rating: 100
Review Date: 07/15/2026
Reviewed By: James Suckling
Tasting Notes: One of the best 2012s released. This so fresh and transparent, with superb clarity and brightness. Subtle aromas of mangoes, apples, some pie crust and crushed stones that follow through to a medium body with a tight palate and an endless finish. Precise on every level. Haute couture. Sophisticated. What a great Champagne can be. [...]. [...]. Drink or hold.

Wine: Rare, Millesime Brut, Champagne, Champagne, France, 2012
Score/Rating: 97
Review Date: 2026
Tasting Notes: Overflowing with decadence and ethereal aromatics: voluptuous sweet nuts, popcorn, coffee cream and toasted hay aromas are counterbalanced by the chiselled [sic] lemon effervescence and green apple acidity. Tantalisingly [sic] rich yet magnificently fresh and driven. Stunning.

Wine: 2012 Rare Champagne
Score/Rating: 97
Suggested Drinking Window: Drink 2025-2052
Review Date: 10/30/2025
Reviewed By: Owen Bargreen
Tasting Notes: The 2012 Rare Champagne is a world-class follow up to the stunning 2013 edition [and] outstanding '08 edition. [...] this is composed of 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir [...]. It is marvelously leesy on the nose with buttered brioche notes alongside shades of banana, cardamom dusted walnut and ginger accents. The palate has amazing volume and texture, as the silky and refined mousse deftly greets you. The length is downright glorious here, as this is a big, broad-shouldered edition of Rare that is just starting to hit its stride. Be sure to give this at least 20 minutes of air before consuming. 

Wine: 2012 Rare Champagne Champagne Millesime
Score/Rating: 96
Suggested Drinking Window: 2024 - 2045
Review Date: 12/20/2024
Reviewed By: Audrey Frick
Tasting Notes: Golden yellow-hued, the 2012 Champagne Millesime has notes of pineapple, bruleed citrus, honeyed ginger, and lemon curd. Round and full, it offers a pillowy mousse with a long finish. It has more ripeness than the 2013 but has fantastic underlying tension and acidity. It's deceiving, as it is quite approachable now but also has the bones to age over the coming decades.

Wine: Piper-Heidsieck Brut Champagne Rare 2012
Score/Rating: 96
Suggested Drinking Window: Drink now through 2040
Review Date: 12/15/2024
Reviewed By: Alison Napjus
Tasting Notes: A graceful Champagne that waltzes across the palate, with a fine, plush mousse carrying a lovely range of ripe black cherry, pureed raspberry, candied ginger, Mandarin orange peel, grilled nut and pastry flavors enlivened by a vibrant spine of lemony acidity. To a certain extent, the precision and elegance belies the focus and breadth on display, so sip this slowly and enjoy as it opens in the glass and expands on the palate, echoing on the finish. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Drink now through 2040.

Wine: Piper-Heidsieck 2012 Brut Cuvee Rare Millesime
Score/Rating: 96
Suggested Drinking Window: 2024 - 2045
Review Date: 12/2024
Reviewed By: Anne Krebiehl MW
Tasting Notes: The 2012 Brut Millesime blends 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir, [...], giving it a slightly unusual yet eternally sleek Chardonnay bent. [...]. Its nose is a smoky wonder, combining ripe, almost tropical fruit with a gorgeous toasty sense of grilled almonds. An overtone of candied orange peel flashes up momentarily. The palate brings wonderfully golden plum fruit, ripe yet fresh, juicy and utterly aromatic, verging on apricot and always surrounded by a toasty, warming frisson of grilled nuts, pervaded by a streak of finest freshness. This is immensely youthful, captured with brilliantly pure fruit and lasting expression that rings long in a toasty umami echo. [...].

Wine: Rare, Champagne, France 2012
Score/Rating: 96
Suggested Drinking Window: 2026 - 2045
Review Date: 11/15/2024
Reviewed By: Natalie Earl
Tasting Notes: A Champagne of great intensity and concentration, pure citrus oil, candied lemon and toasty exotic fruit. It's exceptionally soft and satin-like, creamy and comforting, then a stony, saline intensity draws out the finish. For the first time in the history of Rare Champagne, the house has released a vintage that is older than its previous release. This 2012 comes after the 2013 was released in 2023. Cellar master Emilien Boutillat says this is because when tasting the 2012, he and the team found a connection between this and the iconic 2002, so it desereved [sic] a little bit of extra time in the cellars before release.

Wine: 2012 Piper-Heidsieck Rare Millesime
Score/Rating: 95+
Suggested Drinking Window: 2026 - 2052
Review Date: 10/23/2025
Reviewed By: Kristaps Karklins
Tasting Notes: One of the greatest hits from Rare Champagne [...]. [...], it is a rich and flamboyant wine that harnesses the season's maturity to its advantage. It unfurls in the glass with a complex bouquet of crisp pear, freshly baked bread and white flowers, mingling with roasted pineapple, caramelized sugar and a deft touch of smoky reduction. On the palate, it is full-bodied, muscular, ample and textural, with a simultaneously generous but elegant expression of fruit underpinned by succulent yet vibrant acidity and concluding with a long, saline finish tinged with toast. Concentrated but harmonious, it is dangerously drinkable now yet promises a long window of pleasure. The blend is the classic 70% Chardonnay [...] and 30% Pinot Noir.

Wine: Rare 2012 Rare Millesime Brut Champagne Blend (Champagne)
Score/Rating: 95 - Editors' Choice
Review Date: 12/01/2024
Reviewed By: Roger Voss
Tasting Notes: With Chardonnay dominant in the blend, this is a stylish, impressive Champagne. With its white flower aroma and poise between white fruits and maturity, it is ready to drink. 

Wine: Rare, Brut 2012 Champagne
Score/Rating: 17/20
Suggested Drinking Window: 2025 - 2030
Review Date: 09/30/2025
Reviewed By: Richard Hemming MW
Tasting Notes: Precise, crisp acid. Toasty notes with ripe green-apple fruit and a long umami yeastiness on the palate. That lingering savoury character seems to amplify on the finish.