We tasted: Krug Grande Cuvée ed.167

The Krug et Cie champagne house was born in 1843, when Joseph Krug, after having worked for 8 years at Champagne Jacquesson, and then traveling for one year around Europe, testing the market and hearing views from wine sellers and customers, decided he has all the necessary knowledge to create his own brand. Son of a German butcher from Mainz (at that moment part of the Napoleon’s French Empire), Johann-Joseph Krug decided to live in Paris (1834) and immediately started to work as accountant at Champagne Jacquesson (est. 1798, Châlons-sur-Marne). In time, the young Joseph gets himself involved also in the champagne making processes, especially in the creative ones. This gave him the opportunity to envisage and define his future cuvées and build his own champagne philosophy. From the beginning, Joseph Krug put all his efforts in creating exclusive cuvées, understanding that champagne and luxury are bond together. Joseph died in 1866 and was succeeded by his son Paul Krug, who had been trained by his father for the business in France and abroad.

Nowadays, after six generations, the Krug house is part of LVMH luxury empire but the Krug family still has the wine making department under its control, ensuring that the initial Joseph’s philosophy is still followed.

The “La Grande Cuvée” is inspired by Joseph’s dream to offer the best cuvées possible (cuvée prestige), regardless each year’s climate variations. For this purpose, for the 167th edition’s assemblage, there were involved 191 individual wines from 13 different years (the youngest from 2011, the oldest from 1995).

On the nose we discovered notes of yellow orchard fruit, peach and marzipan complemented by complex notes of freshly baked bread, walnuts and smoke. The bubbles are fresh and the wine is full bodied; on the palate we found delicious flavours of hazelnut, nougat, caramel, red apple, citric fruits, almonds, brioche and honey. The aftertaste is long and complex. During our tasting we found that this cuvée has an explosion of flavours that need a bit more time to find the perfect balance, so is best to be kept for at least 5 years more.