Krug Grande Cuvee 164 eme Edition

Based on the 2008 vintage, Krug’s NV Grande Cuvée 164ème Édition is really beginning to drink with some style, bursting from the glass with complex aromas of tangerine oil, crisp yellow apple, dried fruits, buttered toast, iodine and honeycomb, uniting attributes of youth and maturity, all wrapped up in Krug’s signature toasty patina. Full-bodied, seamless and concentrated, with a fleshy core of fruit, racy acids and an envelopingly pillowy mousse, it’s an intense, sapid wine that is emerging as one of the best “young” renditions of Grande Cuvée for drinking today.

This Grande Cuvée, based on the epic 2008 vintage, surely foreshadows the potential of the vintage wine of the same year. This is superb, with a smoky intensity to the tropical passionfruit and pomelo citrus notes. A depth and complexity of flavour here seldom equalled in Champagne, and a lively energy on the palate carry the wine to a gracefully persistent finish. This exquisite wine is drinking now, but will undoubtedly continue to age. If vintage 2008 has more potential, the Krug Grande Cuvée 164th edition assuredly gives more pleasure now.