In the galaxy Champagne, Krug is a shining planet, perched very high up in the sky. Its Grande Cuvée lights it up with a myriad of twinkling stars, gleaned on earth in the guides and magazines over the five continents. In Sommeliers International's tasting in spring at the George V, Shinya Tasaki—president of the A.S.I.* and one of the 12 Best Sommeliers of the World—found it ethereal, but remaining beautifully generous. To better appreciate its evolution, listen to its great tailor, cellar master Eric Lebel: “Since 1843, when the House Krug was founded, everything has changed but the basics did not move!”
Joseph Krug, the visionary founder who followed his dreams, wrote down in his dark red diary: “One cannot make good wines without using good elements and wines from good crus”. Great care has to be taken to the selection of the plots, gardens as he used to say, to taste and store separately. He preferred wines with character and expression, and advised to add a great part of reserve wines from different years to ward off climate hazards. This motto guided six generations.
Krug Grande Cuvée brought the art of blending at its firmament to get an enchantment of flavours. The exercise takes place every spring, and it is indeed a re-creation we are talking about. For the mixed oenological team composed of 4 persons—2 women, 2 men—joined by Olivier Krug, the House's manager, and Margareth Henriquez, its chairman, the 2012 blending consists of 350 wines to taste: 200 clear wines of the year and 150 reserve wines from previous years. Krug Grande Cuvée's cosmic brightness stems from its multi-vintage dimension. The 30 to 50% reserve wines that enter its composition are stored into stainless steel vats and do not undergo malolactic fermentation.Maison Krug
5 rue Coquebert
51100 Reims
Tél.: +33 (0) 3 26 84 44 20
www.krug.com
Krug Grande Cuvée is born in an oak cradle in which it will stay only three months. It is matured in stainless steel vats, then in bottles on the laths during eight years before its launch and take-off for the cosmos and eternity. “Krug Grande Cuvée gives its grapes time to ripen, its wines to reach their apogee, its Champagne to get a beautifully fine sparkling, and integrates into space through a myriad of plots with an assertive terroir. Time is one of our strengths to transcend this mythical cuvee; nothing has changed in its expression” Eric Lebel confirms.*A.S.I.: Association de la Sommellerie Internationale.
Marie-Caroline Bourrellis
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