Question about Krug

[RyanC]

@Kyle Schlachter

Krug doesn’t place a premium on vintage vs grand cuvée because of a perceived quality difference but claims the price difference is simply a result of supply differences. They say all five wines are on the same rung instead of different steps on a ladder. They just produce more GC and do so every year…

I’ve heard that said before, but can it really be true? Because man, $2,000/bottle is an awful lot to pay for Clos d’Ambonnay if it’s qualitatively on the same level as GC.

[Russell_Faulkner]

What Kyle said. I’ve had GC bottles that were better than ‘lesser’ vintages. But never as good as say 88.

I take the Krug marketing hype with a pinch of salt but the GC can be stunning.

Ambonnay is just because there so little of it, I wouldn’t pay more than for Clos de Mesnil…

[CFu]

@Ryan Caughey

@Kyle Schlachter

Krug doesn’t place a premium on vintage vs grand cuvée because of a perceived quality difference but claims the price difference is simply a result of supply differences. They say all five wines are on the same rung instead of different steps on a ladder. They just produce more GC and do so every year…

I’ve heard that said before, but can it really be true? Because man, $2,000/bottle is an awful lot to pay for Clos d’Ambonnay if it’s qualitatively on the same level as GC.

marketing at its best. If even ten people believe it, it’s succeeded. For something so massively produced, it’s pretty damn expensive for a non vintage champagne.

But it’s good stuff. Since we’re FB friends you know the MV (they got me!) Krug was free flowing at my wife’s litigation dept holiday party. That stuff is delicious, especially when it gets a lot of air, beats a lot of vintage champagne out there . I drank at least a bottle and a half by myself. Drank my Uber ride worth of champagne .

[Kyle_Schlachter]

If only a few thousand bottles are produced versus millions (I’m too lazy to look up actual production, but those numbers should be relatively accurate) then it really is a supply issue. Granted, the wines are made to showcase different things but theoretically on same quality plane. Fwiw, when I tasted a variety of Krug a few years back (neither clos ) I found the GC to be my favorite.

[Kyle_Schlachter]

@C Fu

marketing at its best. If even ten people believe it, it’s succeeded. For something so massively produced, it’s pretty damn expensive for a non vintage champagne.

But it’s good stuff.

Very true, but what wine price isn’t based on marketing???

[Dav1dZ]

@C Fu

@D. Zylberberg

@C Fu

Except you do and I have multiple times over the last few years, including this year. Just gotta be diligent and it’s definitely not a pricing error

I call bullshit.

Not exactly sure why someone would need to lie about buying Krug for under $125 as if it takes some sort of magical trick to do so. In fact, I have never paid over $125 for mv Krug according to my cellartracker.

But hey, whatever helps you sleep at night

I’m sure you bought it for less than $125, I just don’t think it was “available” for that amount - and I know this because I follow Krug closely on wine-searcher and in local stores. If you get some sort of special discount at a store because you’re on their email list, sure, but that’s not about “being diligent”, its about stores selling you stuff as a loss leader to get the profitable purchases on the back end.

[Russell_Faulkner]

Millions of bottles of DP, not Krug…

[patrick_c_albright]

@D. Zylberberg

Aside from pricing errors, prices that factor in counterparty credit risk at PC, and luck at auctions, you wont find Krug GC for less than $120 for a 750.

You can find it.
Wally’s just had quite a bit at $119-- or $120–.

[Ross_Massey]

@Dale Bowers

2003 is just an overall bad vintage in champagne IMO.

I agree. I’ve tasted the 2003s from both Krug and Dom and they are very mediocre. The fact that they were aged and released as vintage wines (an extra 21 months of elevage) tells you what they think of their customers’ palates.

[Russell_Faulkner]

After the 96 came out tied to the GC I was able to pick up good deals on the GC, not seem silly pricing (that was around $90 a bottle) since.

Not tried 2003 Krug, but I thought the DP an interesting wine, managed several bottles over flights on Emirates…

[Mark_Y]

@C Fu

maybe sub $125 pricing is exclusively for asians

Can you let me know next time it’s <120? I’m in for some…

oh and i’m Asian so i qualify right?

[Kyle_Schlachter]

@Russell Faulkner

Millions of bottles of DP, not Krug…

84,000 cases would be a million bottles. I believe Krug production is somewhere above 100,000 cases…

[Rick.T]

@C Fu

@A. So

@Alan Eden

Let me know where GC is $100 please

Chicago liquor store basements. Duh.

In all seriousness, it happens. You just have to be quick, and it isn’t only at PC. My current case of GC I bought from a big auction house for that price, but I’ve bought GC for that price at a few other places too.

maybe sub $125 pricing is exclusively for asians

I’ve seen it for sub $125 as well but didn’t bite; it was too cheap so I paid $146. Charlie is right and you won’t see the price on W-S as its normally a 35% discount…hint, hint.

[J_Singleton]

@Mark Y

@C Fu

maybe sub $125 pricing is exclusively for asians

Can you let me know next time it’s <120? I’m in for some…

oh and i’m Asian so i qualify right?

I really like Asian women, does that mean I can get the friends and family hook-up?

[Jason_Crawford]

@Roy Piper

In looking around online, it looks the non-vintage (Krug Cuvee) goes regularly for about $180. Yet the 2003 goes for sometime like $240?? According to Wine-Searcher.

Is that really right? is the premium for vintage over the cuvee just $60, or am I missing something here.

Way too high for NV.

[Howard_Davis]

I recently tasted the Krug GC against the 2000 and 2003. Of the three, I had the 2000 top, the GC second and the 2003, at some distance, the third. As the GC was a blend of wines from 1990 to 2005 it’s not surprising in some ways that it shows good complexity - simultaneously freshness and evolution - that a relatively recent vintage cannot match. I thought the 2000 had great aging potential, more than I could see in the 2003. I don’t think that the 2003 is not a ‘bad’ Krug, just not the same quality as 2000, letalone 1996.

The pricing here makes it a bit of a no-brainer. Both vintages were priced 33% higher than the GC.

[jdietz]

@C Fu

@D. Zylberberg

@C Fu

Except you do and I have multiple times over the last few years, including this year. Just gotta be diligent and it’s definitely not a pricing error

I call bullshit.

Not exactly sure why someone would need to lie about buying Krug for under $125 as if it takes some sort of magical trick to do so. In fact, I have never paid over $125 for mv Krug according to my cellartracker.

But hey, whatever helps you sleep at night

Me either, ClayFu.

That was a seriously rude comment. Here’s a screenshot of my pending Krug. Of course, I could have made it up tp f*ck with Zylberberg.

[M_Kelly]

I thought BTG ended. I paid 60 per through a BTG program deal.

[Dav1dZ]

@jdietz

That was a seriously rude comment. Here’s a screenshot of my pending Krug. Of course, I could have made it up tp f*ck with Zylberberg.

PC prices aren’t real prices, as they are discounted to reflect counterparty risk. My proposition is that Krug doesn’t sell for less than $125 in the absence of some special facts - like you throwing the store other business to make up for it (i.e., in the case of Wallys, I believe those bottles were rationed)

[Russell_Faulkner]

So it doesn’t sell for under $125, except when it does.

?