The '08 Krug is actually opening up nicely compared to where it was a few years ago. I’m going to pop one later this morning.
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Thanks for the datapoint. For a totally unknown, but likely very complex, tasting menu, I want something very good, but also on the young side, with a bit of dosage. And for a $100 corkage fee, it’s got to be a decently big pull.
I just made a second edit to the first post, adding some preliminary reports on the 2024 and 2025 vintages, along with some way too early speculation about 2026.
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That’s good to know, thanks.
Sipping on the rest of the bottle right now. It was quite good on first pour and then proceeded to close down a bit. But reopened again this evening. So I would probably pop it a few hours before drinking as I usually do with young Champagne.
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It’s still way too early to judge the 2026 vintage, but some important producers are very optimistic:
The potential is magical. However seeing the elevated concentration of the dry extract, this vintage will need a longer maturation time to express its subtilities. We will have to be patient.
-Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon
A very beautiful harvest, moderate quantity, where nothing had to be sorted or discarded.
-Jérôme Prévost
Potential alcohol levels are exceptionally high, while the acidity is holding surprisingly well…grape quality “remarkable”.
-Caroline Fiot (Ruinart)
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Yeah, scary times. But little effect on the '26 vintage: "This exceptional climate has led to a slight increase in the alcohol content of some wines, with a very small number reaching around 13.1% or 13.2% during the second fermentation process. In response, the Comite Champagne has made the decision to temporarily increase the regulatory limit to 15% for this year alone. "
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Ripe and concentrated, so I’d say 2012, 2019, maybe 2020
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Id heard 2020 was not a good vintage, is that yet to be seen, choose wisely, or some combination of the two?
I was in Reims a few weekends ago and visited Mousse, Pierre Gimonnet, and Francis Boulard, and similar comments were made - lots of potential, beautiful grapes, one of, if not the, earliest harvests on record. Some producers were finished harvest before the end of August, some went into the first few days of September.
Bunch weight was way down - Didier Gimonnet told me that average weight of bunches were 80-90g instead of the usual 130-140g, so that will affect production volumes, but overall was quite positive.
Fermentation was still in progress, so very much a “wait and see” at the moment.
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