2011 Krug Vintage

WINE TALK
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Last night I attended a Krug Les Creations 2011 event with Olivier Krug. I was one of the early arrivals and so I had a chance to speak with Olivier one and one. I tried to press him on what vintages are coming next, but he is very good at deflecting and said tonight we talk about 2011. The night started with GC 171, '15 base. This is my 2nd time having this edition, the first time back in October again with Olivier. This drank just like it did the first time, lower in acid, not as lemony as you might expect from GC, more yellow than white fruits, an easy drinker and a good choice to start off with.

For the '11 reveal, Olivier got behind the bar and admitted that this was not a great vintage in Champagne, yet they were able to make a vintage Champagne because of their extensive number of plots and tastings. He said they have 300 plots and Julie and her team, which totals 7 people, taste each plot blind, twice. So they have over 4k tasting notes and use only the best plots for the vintage. It was a nice drinker, chalky, lemony, maybe a bit short on depth and finish. It was better than both bottles of '11 Comtes that I have had.

The '11 was followed by the 167, which is the '11 base. Olivier always says that Krug is all about the Grand Cuvée and this is where it becomes apparent. This had everything the '11 had but more. More depth, fruit, balance and acidity and all thanks to the reserve wines. In a tough Champagne vintage, I think GC is always going to win.

The final bottle of the night, was actually Methusalah’s of 2003. This is a completely different beast, more oxidative, nutty, a touch of caramel and red apple. This was drinking well and probably at its apogee, at least for my palate.

I have no idea what the release plan is for 2011. It was a Les Creations event, so I assume it is going to be boxed with the 167, but I have not seen it offered yet. I have another Krug event tonight and I will see my private client rep and will find out what the plan is.

All in all, a fun night and great to see Olivier, as well as some old friends. I also met Eve, the founder of Astrea Caviar. We had a nice conversation about caviar, of course, and she had nice things to say about Charlie, no surprise there.

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Sounds like it was an incredible evening.

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LVMH always does a great job. There was food as well, including a big tin of Petrossian caviar, a guy making salmon sashimi and scallop hand rolls and waygu beef sandwiches (of which I ate too many). It was at a bar called Shinji which was a 2022 winner of the Michelin Exceptional Cocktails award. I spent quite a bit of time talking to Philip Dizard who is featured here:

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So awesome. Where did this take place!?

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Shinji on 20th St. in Manhattan.

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rough life! Thanks for the notes.,

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I found this particularly interesting. It makes sense. Their notes on the GC sometimes include something about challenges with the base vintage causing them to use a significant proportion of wine from past, great years. I’m starting to think I might prefer the GC in general. A 10 year old bottle last summer was a revelation.

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I am always willing to take one for the team.

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This is where I am now in the GC vs Vintage matchup. 164 is in the zone for me at the moment. We had it in a flight with '08 Vintage and '08 CdM last October. Vintage was my least favorite, CdM was outstanding and 164 was almost as good as CdM at a fraction of the cost.

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I had a bottle of 164 recently (with two Wineberserkers).

The wine was quite fine. It also provoked me to wonder, for as good as the GC is, what does it - broadly speaking - lack in comparison to vintage Krug (again, broadly speaking, as each GC and each vintage had its own personality),

My tasting companions suggested that vintage Krug could provide an intensity or depth not found in GC Krug (while GC would provide a broader range of taste experience).

What say you?

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Not really an answer to your question but I’d take mags of GC over bottles of vintage every day.

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In most years the sum of the parts should outperform a single vintage. Where vintage should stand out is at years 20-40 of cellar time, key word is should.

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Jon, are you sure it was a Methusalah (6L) and not a Jeroboam (3L). I know Krug makes Jeroboam’s (starting with the 1995 vintage and around that time for the Grand Cuvee) but I’ve never heard of a 6L from Krug.

Somewhere I’ve got a picture of me in the Krug cellars standing next to a riddling rack of 1995 3L’s. I’ll have to see if I can find it.

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3L

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So is it correct to say Grand cuvée has the upper hand when it comes to immediate and intermediary approachability, while the vintage cuvées have the upper han when it comes to true profundity with age?

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I’ve had 1988, 1990, and 1996 in that range, and I still think I prefer the GC with a bit of age. It probably doesn’t matter as I wouldn’t pay the going rate for the vintage these days anyway, and I am super happy to drink any Krug that’s in front of me.

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I don’t drink a ton of vintage Krug, but from the context of notes here, it feels like GC > Vintage.
Much of that is reserve wines that bolster the GC and maintain style and consistency you cannot do with vintage.

I also think modern Krug vintage may outpace vintages like 1996 that were said to be immortal.

Better said downthread is price now makes GC just that much more attractive than vintage.

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I’d be curious if someone with more Krug tasting history could rank the last few releases of GC and Vintage stacked by quality. Say 164 - 171 ans where vintage rates within the GCs.

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Great write up @Jon_Lawrence

I happen to work with Philip D on and off. Great guy.

Sadly, I was not invited to this. Ha!

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Karl,

I agree with you assessment. I think GC provides a better drinking experience in the short-term because the older reserve wines bring the depth and flavors that come with age to balance out the acidity and less developed flavors of the younger reserve and base vintage. There is also a certain level of consistency that you get with GC that you definitely don’t get with vintage. I think vintage starts to shine after a lot of time, 20+ years. I attended an extensive Krug retrospective going back 60 years at the time of the event. The vintage Champagnes from the 50’s and 60’s were amazing, some of the best Champagnes I have ever tasted. The event consisted of 2 lunches and a dinner and each one started with the current release GC at the time and it just could not stand up to the old vintage bottles.

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