Krug’s Grande Cuvée is like no other non-vintage Champagne, having more in common with other houses prestige bottlings, both in price and quality. Most Champagne aficionados know that Krug ferments all of its still wines in small oak casks, the only Champagne house to do so. Maggie Henriquez, Krug’s President and CEO, explains that the real benefit of this technique is to keep the wines separate to see how they develop before including them in the blend. Krug’s founder, Joseph Krug, felt that this “parcelization” was essential, lest a distinctive wine was lost when combined with more mediocre ones. One third to one half of the final blend of Grand Cuvée comes from their stock of 150 reserve wines, which date back 15 years. Since a typical vintage produces about 250 different wines that makes about 400 wines to taste just to get the blending started. No wonder Grande Cuvée is truly grand.

Vivino 2017 Wine Style Awards
November 30, 2016