Wine Advisor
Krug, Grande Cuvee Brut NV
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Description
Krug Grande Cuvée 168ème Édition was composed around the harvest of 2012, a beautiful year with a low yield due to a succession of meteorological events. Frost, rain, storms and hale all hit the vineyards of Champagne in winter and spring 2012, followed by the driest ripening season since 1974, resulting in 20% fewer grapes. The final creation is the result of blending wines of the year from carefully selected plots with reserve wines of specific plots from 10 other years. As the wines of 2012 were reminiscent of pastry with great roundness, reserve wines were added to bring vivacity to the blend. Reserve Chardonnays were chosen from certain plots in Avize and Marmery for their freshness, while Pinot Noir reserve wines from plots in the Montagne de Reims Nord brought tension. In all, reserve wines from the House’s extensive library made up 42% of the final blend, bringing the breadth and roundness so essential to each Édition of Krug Grande Cuvée.
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The NV Brut Grand Cuvee offers up attractive suggestions of pears, quince, spice, brioche and minerals. As is often the case here, the Grand Cuvee reveals notable elegance and finesse. The use of reserve wines in the blend gives this wine an unusual level of complexity. Readers should expect a fair amount of bottle variation, something I myself have encountered with some frequency over the years. Some bottles can be fantastic, others less so. Although the Grand Cuvee is a good introduction to the Krug house style I find it increasingly difficult to get excited about this wine. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2011. My visit to Krug in November was illuminating, as I spent several hours tasting through a number of 2008 vins claires and reserve wines with Director of the Maison Olivier Krug and Director of OEnology Eric Lebel. Although Krug ages its young wines exclusively in French oak barrels, these wines were remarkably pure and transparent; suggesting that much of the signature Krug toastiness may come from the extended period the wines spend on their lees rather than from the oak. Over the yeas many of the most monumental, mind-bending Champagnes I have had have emerged from these cellars in Reims. Krug boasts an extraordinarily rich history along with a superb track record. In a recent tasting that included most, if not all, of the top 1996s, the Krug Vintage and Clos du Mesnil were at the very top of the pack. Along with making profound wines, under the direction of the charming Olivier Krug this venerable estate has pushed the boundaries on pricing to levels never seen before. The newest wine from Krug is the 100% Pinot Noir Clos d’Ambonnay. Sadly, that wine is priced for billionaires, not mortals. Krug does not provide disgorgement dates for its wines, something which is a serious shortcoming considering the lofty prices these bottles fetch. The corks are stamped with a code which can be traced back to a disgorgement lot and date, but that will be of little use to consumers once bottles are opened. It would be great to see Krug take a leadership position among the region’s grands marques and add disgorgement dates to its labels. Importer: Moet Hennessy USA, New York, NY; tel. (212) 251-8200
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
The Grande Cuvee (disgorged 2000) has quite a creamy warm apple and pear tart nose with subtle nuances of jasmine, chalk and lightly browned toast plus a whiff of orange peel. The palate offers open, expressive apple and lemon curd flavors with enlivening acid and a long citrusy finish.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
The Grande Cuvee (disgorged 1998) is scented of croissant, buttered cinnamon toast and warm strawberries with a hint of smoky bacon. Muscular and still very taut in the mouth, the densely packed flavors are refreshed with a pure, crisp acid line. It finishes long with plenty of toast and nut layers.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
This wine was recommended, but no tasting note was given.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Oddly, the most consistent Krug wine I have been tasting lately is their non-vintage Brut Grand Cuvee, a big, boldly styled Champagne with smoky, earthy, pear, apple, and spicy aromas as well as flavors, loads of effervescence, and fine body and depth. Importer: Moet-Hennessy, USA, New York, NY; tel. (212) 251-8200.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
I’ve always loved the bold, oxidative, exotically spiced style of Krug’s “multi-vintage” entry level superstar. The nose alone is worth savouring with its mouth-wateringly fresh baked apple pie and marzipan scents. The palate is rich, full-flavoured and very crisp with a wonderful combination of brioche, stone fruit and mineral flavours providing layers of complexity. Very well balanced and ready to drink though with enough concentration to cellar for another decade or so. Very long finish. Tasted October 2008.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The NV Brut Grande Cuvee emerges from the glass with freshly cut flowers, almonds, pastry and spices. This is a relatively floral, bright Grande Cuvee with fewer of the oxidative qualities that are typical of the house style. According to Krug's ID Code, this bottle is based on the 2004 vintage, which explains the wine's tense, taut personality. Another year or two on the cork will only help the wine gain expressiveness and depth. Today, the Grande Cuvee is quite reticent and not showing the full breadth of its personality. This bottle carries ID Code: 211024. Disgorged: Summer 2011.Anticipated maturity: 2013-2020. There are no new vintage wines from Krug, but is always interesting to revisit these wines as they develop so much over time. The biggest news at Krug is the addition of ID Codes to the NV wines, which gives readers the opportunity to get more information on the wines (including disgorgement dates) through Krug's website. It would be great to see more of the larger houses follow suit. Importer: Moet Hennessy USA, New York, NY; tel. (212) 251-8200
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted at Berry Brothers & Rudd. A wonderful, minerally nose with touches of limestone, touches of flint, quite tight but very focused. The palate has great nervosite on the entry, steely, Zen-line, supremely well focused with superb acidity. Very harmonious, touches of fresh lime, citrus lemon, apple-blossom and wonderful sense of mineralite towards the finish. This Grande Cuvee seems to be more effortless than previous encounters with tremendous persistency on the finish. Superb. Drink now-2015+ Tasted October 2008.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Based on the 2013 vintage and complemented by some 40% reserve wines dating back to 2000, Krug's newly released NV Grande Cuvée 169ème Édition is showing very nicely, unfurling in the glass with notes of citrus oil, buttered toast, dried apricot, warm biscuits and marmalade. Medium to full-bodied, deep and incisive, it's a tauter, more chiseled rendition of Grande Cuvée by comparison with the richer, more textural and more demonstrative 168ème Édition (based on the 2012 vintage) that preceded it; but its bright spine of acidity is nicely cloaked in fruit. Concluding with a long and sapid finish, this is a very classically balanced Champagne that will reward bottle age
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Based on the 2008 vintage complemented by some 22% reserve wines, Krug's NV Grande Cuvée 164ème Édition opens in the glass with notes of warm bread, crisp yellow orchard fruit, mandarin, buttered toast and smoke. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and textural, it's rich and vinous but incisive, with fine depth at the core, tangy acids and an elegant pinpoint mousse. More complete than its vintaged sibling in 2008, it does share some of the latter's reserve and is still a few years from its peak, even if it's already approachable with great pleasure now.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Based on the 2008 vintage, Krug's NV Grande Cuvée 164ème Édition is really beginning to drink with some style, bursting from the glass with complex aromas of tangerine oil, crisp yellow apple, dried fruits, buttered toast, iodine and honeycomb, uniting attributes of youth and maturity, all wrapped up in Krug's signature toasty patina. Full-bodied, seamless and concentrated, with a fleshy core of fruit, racy acids and an envelopingly pillowy mousse, it's an intense, sapid wine that is emerging as one of the best "young" renditions of Grande Cuvée for drinking today.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Making its debut this year is Krug's NV Grande Cuvée 167ème Édition, a beautiful wine that wafts from the glass with aromas of yellow orchard fruit, peach and waxy citrus rind, complemented by complex notes of freshly baked bread, walnuts and smoke. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied and muscular but incisive, with a deep and concentrated core, a pinpoint mousse and a long, complex finish. Built around the 2011 vintage, the wine includes reserve wines dating back to 1995 and was disgorged in the winter of 2017-2018. Readers are advised to give it at least a couple years of bottle age before popping corks.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Krug's NV Grande Cuvée 168ème Édition is a classic in the making, wafting from the glass with aromas of dried fruits, pear, toasted nuts, orange zest, honeycomb and freshly baked bread. Medium to full-bodied, generous but incisive, it's deep and elegantly fleshy, with a beautifully refined mousse and an enveloping core of fruit that's complemented by the characteristic Krug patina of nutty complexity imparted by barrel fermentation. Even if this is more open out of the gates than the 2011-based 167ème edition, the 168ème edition is also the more concentrated and intense of the two. It's based on the 2012 harvest, complemented by fully 42% reserve wines—a blend of 198 wines from 11 different vintages dating back to 1996.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
A complex bouquet of iodine, mandarin, warm biscuits, dried flowers, citrus oil and anise introduces the NV Grande Cuvée 163ème Édition, a wine that's built around the 2007 vintage and is beginning to display some very attractive evolution. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with a ripe but racy spine of acidity, chalky structure and a long, penetrating finish.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Krug's NV Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition is based on the 2014 vintage, complemented by some 45% reserve wines dating back to 1998, with the house drawing on, among many others, 2013 for structure and 2012 and 2003 for generosity. Opening in the glass with aromas of pastry cream, dried fruits, pear, warm spices, freshly baked bread and vanilla pod, it's medium to full-bodied, pillowy and fine-boned, with excellent concentration, racy acids and a precise, chiseled profile. But if the latter adjective could be applied to the 2013-base 169ème édition equally felicitously, the 2014-base 170ème is more giving and less tightly wound out of the gates and will offer more demonstrative drinking young.
Reviewed by: Stephan Reinhardt
Compared to Krug's 160th edition, the bright golden-yellow colored NV Grande Cuvée 166ème Édition (ID117010) is still a baby that shows the chalky and fruity features of a young white Burgundy intermixed with notes of Schwarzwälder Kirsch (dark cherries with black chocolate) and floral (ammonia) flavors on the pure, fresh and elegant yet intense and still yeasty brioche nose with its ripe apple aromas and refreshingly bright (lemon juice) overtones. Round, wide and very elegant yet also straight and tense on the palate, this 2010-dominated cuvée is very delicate, fresh and chalky but also dense and lush in its vinous texture. The finish is well-structured, fresh and persistent, indicating great complexity and vibrancy. However, I would wait at least another three years, during which time the 166th edition will gain even more finesse and quiet. The 166ème Édition is composed of 140 wines from 13 different harvests between 1998 and 2010, and it's a blend of 45% Pinot Noir with 39% Chardonnay and 16% Pinot Meunier, the latter of which provides the vivacity that the Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs surprisingly didn't have in 2010, a vintage that was marked by its "tumultuous climate," as Eric Lebel writes. Tasted in New York in November 2018.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Based on the 2003 vintage, Krug's NV Grande Cuvée 159ème Édition offers up generous aromas of toasted bread, yellow orchard fruit, mandarin oil, almond paste and candied citrus peel. Medium to full-bodied, rich and open-knit, it's elegantly fleshy, with ripe acids and a pretty pinpoint mousse, concluding with a sapid finish. Readers habituated to Krug's calling-card cut and intensity may find it a little soft and one-dimensional, but it's a creditable effort in a challenging year.
Reviewed by: Stephan Reinhardt
The NV Grand Cuvée 165ème Édition Brut (ID 416039 – disgorged IV/2016) is a multi-vintage Champagne based on the 2009 vintage and includes a wide range of reserve wines from fine vintages going back to 2001. The 165th edition is comprised of 127 wines and opens with a beautiful, very clear and delicate bouquet that displays very fine toast, nougat, hazelnut, ripe and dried fruit (raisins), floral and concentrated (and refreshing) citrus fruit aromas. On the palate, this is a generously rich, mature yet fresh, highly finessed and elegant prestige cuvée with a long, complex, tensioned and beautifully mineral finish with tangy citrus flavors. Under perfect storing conditions, the 165ème Édition should gain even more depth and finesse during the next 10 to 15, maybe even 20 years. Tasted in Reims in April 2018.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
The NV Grande Cuvée 165ème Édition is showing well, offering up a lovely bouquet of warm bread, honeycomb, peachy fruit, smoke and lemon oil. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, layered and beautifully integrated, with excellent depth at the core, a fine mousse and a long, chalky finish. Built around the 2009 vintage, the 165ème isn't as powerful or fleshy as the 167ème Édition, but if anything, it's even classier and more harmonious at this stage.
About the Producer
The House was established in Reims in 1843, by Joseph Krug, a visionary non-conformist with an uncompromising philosophy. Having understood that the true essence of Champagne is pleasure itself, his dream was to craft the very best Champagne he could offer, every single year, regardless of annual variations in climate. Paying close attention to the vineyard’s character, respecting the individuality of each plot and its wine, as well as building an extensive library of reserve wines from many different years allowed Joseph Krug to fulfil his dream. With a very original approach to Champagne making, he decided to go beyond the notion of vintage to create the most generous expression of Champagne, every year. Thus, he founded a House in which all Champagnes are of the same level of distinction. Six generations of the Krug family have perpetuated this dream, enriching the founder’s vision and savoir faire.
2004(1)
Package Size
1 x 1.5L12 x 37.5cl
