today we’re going to open Krug Grand Cuvée. A few things we should know before we taste the wine. Established in 1843, Krug is one of the most sought after champagnes, and it dictates very high prices. Even those wine lovers who are more into growers champagne will rarely say no to a Krug. Krug makes several champagnes and they all are considered to be prestige cuvée. And while their vintage and single vineyard champagnes are very rare and made only in the exceptional vintages, Grand Cuvée here is made every year.
Krug unifies each side separately in neutral oak barrels, and that gives them great number of wines or options for blending. And Krug is known to be masterful blenders. Ultimately, Krug Grand Cuvée will be a blend of different plots, different grape varieties and wines from different vintages. The blend of Krug Grande Cuvée is usually dominated by Pinot Noir with 45 to 55%. It is followed by Chardonnay. While many can sometimes be as much as 20%, which is interesting because this grape variety is often considered to be inferior by other champagne houses, Wines from previous vintages, oftentimes called reserve wines, can constitute from 30 to 50% of the blend, while other champagnes that are made from blend of different vintages we might call non vintage. Krug insists that their wine is not non vintage, but actually multi vintage, meaning it is a blend of the finest wines from several vintages.
Some wine lovers will enjoy their CRU with no further questions asked, while others will want to know exact percentage of blended grape varieties, plots, vintages and the amount of reserve wines, added Krug. Here goes transparent. And instead of printing all that information on the back label, Krug uses technology enter code world. So this specific crew is a blend of 146 wines from 11 different vintages. The youngest wine is from 2013, and I think that means that this is also the base vintage.
All this one comes from 2000, the millennium. This specific blend has 43% of Pinot noir, 35 Chardonnay and 22 Meunier. This is what I said before. It actually has high percentage of many. Okay. Food pairing so this champagne can be enjoyed as an aperitif with mature comtesse or served to accompany oysters. Perfect. What an amazing acidity. This is absolutely amazing. I mean, it shows a lot of complexity we have here, Quince. We have honey, we have brioche. And it is all wrapped in this beautiful maturity and minerality, beautiful wine. So what is so special about Krug Grande Cuvée? I mean, it is essentially a blend of different vintages, yet it shows a great complexity and character of a vintage champagne, and I think it can also age as one. Cheers!