NV Krug Champagne Grande Cuvée Brut- France, Champagne (11/30/2013)
This was a bottle acquired several years ago (minimum of 4 - no code on the bottle to check), and the cellar time worked the usual magic. Toasty, nutty, floral and full of apple and citrus fruit - a wonderful, fascinating set of aromas and flavors. Stunning Champagne that does show the Krug style, and for that both my wife and I were very thankful. We both loved it. Happy early birthday to my wife, and thanks to mom and dad for gifting this bottle to us several years ago!
+2. Just bought some half bottles too when we know we can’t finish a whole bottle. (My wife is a Krug nut, but recently had an epiphany Salon experience with 96, gotta source some of those too).
Alan, hope you’re right about the NV Billcart Salmon Rose, last time I opened one about a yr ago, I didn’t like it at all. Buried it and forgot about them.
I love the Grand Cuvee with age. They only get better and better. For the post-2011 bottles that have the Krug ID system you can check online. For Pre-2011, there is some way to more or less determine the age. I found a great blog post with some solid info:
FROM THE BLOG:
The colour of the label and other features of the label design identifies the approximate age of the bottle. The years below indicate which years the bottles were sold by Krug:
Mid-2011-: beige (I’ve also seen it called matt-yellow) label with ID code. The front label is somewhat simplified compared to those without ID code. The patterns on the sides of the label have been dropped, and “KRUG” is written in a straight line on the lower shield of the neck foil. The back label includes an ID code. The first bottles of this label design were from the base vintage 2003.
2004-2011: beige label without ID code. On the sides of the front label there is a flower-like pattern, and “KRUG” is written in a curved way on the lower shield of the neck foil. All bottles have a V code on their cork (see below).
1995/96-2004: gold label with a lot of red in the design. “KRUG” is written with golden letters on a red background. The neck foil is also gold-coloured and there’s a large “K” high up on it. The younger bottles of this label design have a V code on their cork, and the older have a two-digit code.
1982/83-1995/96: “white” (or pale yellow) label. To tell the difference between yellow and white labels only based on the colour isn’t too easy, since older labels can be somewhat faded. However, this label design also has “GRANDE CUVÉE” written in small-size uppercase letters, has a narrow red line around the edge (rather than a wide border), and a long neck foil that reaches half-way down the narrowing part of the bottle and finishes with a large shield.
1978-1982/83: yellow label. This label design can also be identified by the wide red border on the label, by “Grande Cuvée” written in rather large-sized lowercase letters (with uppercase G & C) and a shorter neck foil, that basically only covers the straight part of the neck. The decision to introduce Grande Cuvée and the new bottle design was taken in 1972, so the base vintage in the oldest bottles of this label design is 1971 or 1972.
As alluded to by Alan, I think many quality NV champagnes (other than just Krug) will benefit from additional bottle age. I started buying Krug NV in quantity a number of years ago for this purpose and have begun adding others as well.