Average rating 4.9/5 stars across all Google and external reviews
We can ship to EU & other Worldwide Countries. Delivery prices calculate in the checkout when you add delivery country & postcode.
Champagnes or wines shipped outside of the UK are VAT exempt, shipping prices include both shipping price and your Country import taxes & duties, DDP, Delivered Duty Paid.
The checkout will indicate shipping days once destination address is completed.
Advanced checkout allows you to choose multi person deliveries at one address or at different addresses,
we can upload large multi orders from this spreadsheet template
Order 6+ bottles or £250+ and standard delivery is free to one delivery address. Cases can be mixed.
Bought directly from Moët Hennessy, the bottles are stored in bond at London City Bond Eton Park, in ideal conditions at a constant 13°C. For same-day deliveries, small quantities are kept in our office cellar, where the temperature is maintained between 11–13°C. We source all our bottles directly from the Maison or their official UK office, eliminating the risk of poor storage. This is crucial, as champagne quality is highly sensitive to heat: temperatures above 18°C accelerate maturity significantly, which compromises quality.
Joseph Krug founded the house in 1843 after learning winemaking at Champagne Jacquesson, driven to craft the finest champagne every year, regardless of climate. By honouring each vineyard's individuality and creating a vast reserve library, he achieved his dream & Krug Grande Cuvée 1st Edition was born.
In the 1970s, Henri and Rémi Krug modernized production, acquired Clos du Mesnil, 1st vintage 1979, launched Krug Rosé in 1983 and purchased Clos d'Ambonnay in 1991, first vintage 1995. LVMH acquired Krug in 1999; Henri and Rémi stepped down in 2007. Since 2009, Olivier Krug, the sixth generation, is Director of Krug.
In 2024, Krug completed Joseph, its new state-of-the-art sustainable winery in the village of Ambonnay, awarded exceptional HQE certification.
The potential for a Krug vintage champagne is identified during the blending of Krug Grande Cuvée. Once the non-vintage blend has been secured and all of the reserves earmarked, the wines displaying the most pronounced character of the vintage are blended to create the vintage champagne.
Krug ID: 112005 | Each magnum of Krug 1998 has a Krug ID on the back label which enables you to discover the story of that very bottle. You can do so using the smartphone App or on the Krug website.
Weather: The weather in 1998 was classic: very contrasted as is characteristic of Champagne, with a particularly hot August, the hottest since 1962. This was followed by heavy rain in early September, then dry, mild weather during harvest. For the House of Krug, a focus on Chardonnay for the 1998 vintage was an obvious choice, due to the outstanding personality of the white grapes that year. This vintage is known as "Hommage au Chardonnay" as it is only the second Krug vintage (after 1981) where Chardonnay dominates.
Technical Information:
Vineyards: Predominately Premier & Grand Cru| Chardonnay: Côte des Blancs, Trépail | Pinot Noir: Montagne de Reims | Meunier: Leuvrigny
Grape Varieties: 47% Chardonnay, 37% Pinot Noir, 16% Meunier
Ageing: 8 years on the lees
Disgorged: Autumn 2013
Dosage: 6 g/l
Drink: Now to 2040+
Tasting Note:Krug 1998 offers astonishing purity, precision, elegance and a very long finish. Expressive aromas of bread, hazelnut and orange peel develop into flavours of citrus fruits, dried fruits and gingerbread. This is a vintage with incredible ageing potential: expect this to develop even deeper levels of complexity with time.
Just five years after Joseph Krug founded his eponymous Champagne House in 1843, he documented his great vision for Krug in a cherry-red leather notebook. In it, he revealed the principles of creating a champagne of incredible richness yet great elegance, of selecting only the finest elements from the greatest terroirs, rejecting mediocre fruit and making both a non-vintage and a vintage cuvée - revolutionary at the time. Discovered in 2010 by current House Director and sixth generation of the founding family Olivier Krug, the ideals in this notebook and Krug's resolute commitment to them have secured their position as the most luxurious and exclusive of all Champagne producers.
Unlike other Champagne Houses, Krug's range consists of prestige cuvées only. Their iconic non-vintage Grande Cuvée is a masterful blend of some 120 wines, vintage Krugs are renowned as true classics, majestically displaying the characteristics of each harvest and their unique and exclusive single-vineyard champagnes, Clos du Mesnil and Clos d'Ambonnay are the ultimate rarities. The recent introduction of ID codes displayed on the back of every bottle - revealing base year, disgorgement periods and product information - has helped revise the vision of Krug in line with the great founder's philosophy.
Cellar Master: Julie Cavil
Winery Location: Reims | Champagne, France
Champagne Region: Montagne de Reims
Annual Production (bottles): 760,000
Chef de Cave History at Champagne Krug:
Julie Cavil - January 2020 to current
Julie Cavil is the current Cellar Master of Champagne Krug — and the first woman to hold that role. After starting her career in advertising, she retrained in oenology in Champagne and joined Krug in 2006, becoming Chef de Caves in 2020. Known for her humility, precision, and respect for Krug’s “one plot, one wine” philosophy, she oversees the blending of hundreds of base wines each year to recreate Krug’s signature style. Cavil balances tradition with innovation, focusing on sustainability and creative projects while preserving the founder’s vision of crafting the finest Champagne every year, regardless of vintage conditions.
Eric Lebel - 1999 - 2019
Eric Lebel joined Krug in 1999 as Chef de Cave. He was described as “Mozart of bubbly". Under his leadership the house expanded its reserve-wine library (for example, tripling from ~50-60 reserve wines in earlier years to 150+). He emphasised the preservation of individuality of plot, rigorous tasting, and refusing wines that did not meet house standards.
Dominique Petit - 1979 - 1999
Dominique Petit is a original Champenois. He was born in Verzy in 1954. Coming from a family of winegrowers, he studied at the Lycée Viticole d’Avize and the University of Reims, earning his oenology diploma at 23. Petit joined Champagne Krug in 1979, where he spent 20 years overseeing production under Henri and Rémy Krug. His tenure marked a bridge between Krug’s family-run era and its modernisation before LVMH ownership. In 1999, he became Chef de Cave at Pol Roger.
Expert Reviews
17.5/20
Jancis Robinson MW
“35% Pinot Noir, 46% Chardonnay, 19% Pinot Meunier. Known as ‘a tribute to Chardonnay’. A particularly hot August, breaking a record set in 1962. This was Eric Lebel’s first vintage and 1998 is remembered as a year of quantity as well as high quality grapes. Second time since 1981 that Chardonnay dominated a Krug vintage. Both bottles tasted blind. Deep amber-tinged straw. Mushroomy nose at first made me wonder whether there wasn’t a touch of TCA? Just a hint of decay – perhaps because it’s very old. Not that long. We tasted a second bottle but it had the same nose, and tasted possibly just a little more acid. I wondered whether it was perhaps the 1988?”
20/20
Nick Baker TFB Founder
“Jeroboam: I wasn’t ready for this, the power & density of the fruit was quite something, sitting in this layer of flinty smoke. 1998 was a ripe fruit year and you see that, so much of the PN upfront stone fruit, particularly apricot, peach and pear, all drippingly ripe in their personality amongst some dried citrus. The palate stretches you further, the hints of bitter orange on the aromatics bursts into life on the palate adding further complexities and juiciness. The texture is so seductive, velvetiness envelopes your tongue as the sweet fruit, soft bubbles and salinity interact giving the palate its savoury and sweet workout! I have always loved Krug 1998, it was after all one of the founding champagnes of my business. This is the first #Jeroboam I have tasted, it is exquisite and feels like we are drinking it at a perfect time; though with much energy, this will develop for another 10-20 years, at least. It well deserves its perfect score. 20/20”
19/20
Jancis Robinson MW
“(Magnum) Tasted blind. Disgorged spring 2010. Very different nose – extremely dense and layered. But good freshness. Youthful. Some yeasty beeriness. Lots of layers. Jeroboam? No, this very fine wine was the magnum. ”
18.5/20
Jancis Robinson MW
“(Bottle) Tasted blind. Disgorged October 2007. Meaty and interesting. Savoury and very dry. Tight texture but with lots of evolution on the nose. Bone-dry end. Sweet and more delicate than most. Magnum? No, it's the bottle!”
18/20
Jancis Robinson MW
“(Jeroboam) Tasted blind. Disgorged autumn 2013. Quite a different nose from the first sample (which turned out to be the magnum): herbs and damp furniture webbing. Open. The lightest in terms of weight. The simplest of the three samples of this wine so I assumed it came from a bottle but in fact it was the jeroboam, disgorged very much recently than the other two samples – not a level playing field! ”
93/100
Essi Avellan MW
“Deep, evolved, ripe fruity nose of toast, dried fruit, nuts and bruised apple complexity. Concentrated, vinous and powerful palate, which comes with the smoothest mousse. Open, accessible and impressively well built palate that comes with an accentuated ripe appley fruit character. Shows already signs of evolution but there is of fruit left for ageing.”
17/20
Julia Harding MW
“47% Chardonnay, 37% Pinot Noir, 16% Pinot Meunier – unusual for Krug to be Chardonnay dominant but it was very successful in this vintage. Dosage 6 g/l. Disgorged Dec 2007. Mid gold. Very yeasty nose, the most toasty so far in this line up of 04s and 98s, lightly honeyed, chamomile, dried fruit, buttery baked apples. Delicious aromas and so different from the DP 98. Broad but surprisingly tart on the palate. As if the flavour and the structure have started to diverge with the acidity starting to spike. Tart aftertaste.”
98/100
Wine Spectator
“This harmonious Champagne offers luxurious texture and powerful, focused acidity, showing aromatic accents of spring blossom, crushed thyme and chai, with rich notes of lemon meringue, hazelnut, black currant and fresh porcini mushroom. The full package. Impressive.”
95/100
Antonio Galloni
“Krug's 1998 Brut Vintage is an excellent choice for drinking today, as the classic Krug style is rich, alive and totally vivid. Honey, almonds, smoke, graphite and dried apricots are some of the many aromas and flavors found in this rich, enveloping Champagne. A wine of texture and depth, the 1998 impresses for its vinous personality and terrific balance. Lively veins of underlying acidity suggest the 1998 will drink well for many years to follow. This is one of the best bottles of the 1998 I have ever tasted. ”
19.5/20
Jancis Robinson MW
“Very, very fine bead. Very discreet and beautifully constructed. Very dense. Like a ship, constructed bit by bit. Dry finish. Needs food! A great rarity: a Krug with more Chardonnay than Pinot Noir.”
94/100
Richard Juhlin
“Enormously fascinating to see how Krug has succeeded in avoiding a single oxidated grape this risky year, despite their extensive procuration of grapes from different sources. This wine is fantastically focused and unmistakeably stamped with the Krug trademark. Seductively mellow right through the elegant, classical flavour that is as united as a well-trimmed Russian machine team from the 70s. Somewhere between 89, 95 and 96 in character.”
Krug Grande Cuvée 169ème Édition is a blend of 146 wines from 11 different years, the youngest of which is from 2013, while the oldest dates back to 2000 and a stay of around seven years in Krug’s cellars gives this edition its distinct expression and elegance.
Champagne Krug have announced that Julie Cavil will take over as winemaking director in the new year. Incumbent winemaking director Eric Lebel will become deputy director of Krug and will lead projects involving all of the brands within the Moët Hennessy portfolio.
At our most recent tasting at 67 Pall Mall, guests blind tasted Krug Grande Cuvée Editions 162-166 NV (2006-2010), and Krug Vintages 2000-2004, including Krug 2000 from magnum. Find out which champagnes were the highest rated on the evening here.
Last week, we held the most comprehensive Krug Grande Cuvée vertical tasting to date. At 67 Pall Mall, guests blind tasted Grande Cuvée Editions 158-166 NV (2002-2010). We also tasted two Krug Vintages: 2002 and 2004.
Last year, we blind tasted every vintage of Krug produced since 1988 with Olivier Krug and Jancis Robinson MW. With over ten vintages, a Grande Cuvée and a magnum thrown in for good measure, it was a truly special occasion.
Read Jancis Robinson’s report of our outstanding Krug vintage vertical tasting last November. "This would have been a dream tasting anyway, but I particularly love tasting a group of wines blind."
We visited Krug over August bank holiday weekend with Jancis Robinson MW. With an unexpected visit to Clos du Mesnil, a tour of the new Maison, a mini-vertical tasting and dinner at the house, it was well-worth the long drive!
In Dec 2016, we compared five Editions of Krug Grande Cuvée in their first ever blind tasting. Alongside Krug 2002 & 2003, their quality was undeniable, as was the interesting variation between them.
The 2016 Vins Clairs; reserve wines as old as 1998; winemaking with an iPad; Grande Cuvée 163rd Edition; Clos du Mesnil 2002; and revolutionising Champagne terminology. It's all happening at Krug!
