
The Friday Bubble – Review of Krug Grande Cuvée 171st Edition
June 16, 2023
Today on The Friday Bubble with Nick Baker; Krug Grande Cuvée 171st Edition compared to its predecessor Krug Grand Cuvee 170th edition.
Today on The Friday Bubble with Nick Baker; Krug Grande Cuvée 171st Edition compared to its predecessor Krug Grand Cuvee 170th edition.
Krug Grande Cuvée 170th Edition is a blend of 195 wines from 12 different years spanning from 1998 to 2014.
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.
Vintage 2002 is legendary in Champagne and has often been named the vintage of the century. But did the hype and unanimity of its success result in the unfair neglect of another, perhaps equally, great vintage? We conducted a blind tasting to find out.
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.
Essi Avellan MW recently hosted our latest Krug Experience tasting, in which guests sipped no less than twelve Krug champagnes (both Grande Cuvée and Vintage), including four examples from magnum. Check out the review and photos of the event here.
Despite frequently tasting newly released champagnes, we rarely take the opportunity to sit down and taste just new releases. At our tasting at Frederick’s earlier this week we did exactly that, tasting a range of styles from some of the top champagne producers side by side.
Earlier this week, Jancis Robinson MW presented our standout champagne tasting of the year to a packed St James’s Room at 67 Pall Mall. The theme was champagne’s ageing potential and guests sampled ten pairs (an old and current vintage) from ten major brands.
Scheduling appointments at twenty champagne houses in one week is never an easy task, but perhaps our greatest feat of organisation was pinning down Olivier Krug. We managed to catch up with the globetrotting face of the company amidst his ever-busy international schedule for a whopper of a tasting this June.
This week, Krug unveiled their latest creation: Grande Cuvée Edition 167 NV. Based on the 2011 harvest, this will be a very short release due to the limited quantities produced. We have also recently listed magnums of Grande Cuvée Edition 164 NV, based on the spectacular 2008 vintage.
Since the early 21st century, a quiet revolution has been occurring in Champagne, and the ever-burgeoning demand for artisanal, hand-crafted cuvées continues to flourish. What are the origins of single vineyard champagnes, why are they so popular, and are they a fad or the future?
Our previous write-up highlighted what a spectacular year 2018 was for champagne. The good news? 2019 is set to be even bigger! In this article, we look to the future and discuss which champagnes we can expect to be released in 2019.
Our 2018 Champagne Review takes a look back at an eventful year for the world’s best sparkling wine, highlighting the news stories that made headlines, including stunning new releases; a record-breaking harvest; world-class tasting events; and a first for English sparkling wine.
As we get closer to Christmas, our champagne special offers keep getting better and better. This week, we’re promoting top of the range champagnes, with unbeatable prices on the most popular prestige cuvées, including Dom Pérignon, Krug Grande Cuvée and Louis Roederer Cristal.
English sparkling wine producer Nyetimber made history with the launch of the first English prestige cuvées last month. Our panel of expert critics, including Jancis Robinson MW, blind tasted these groundbreaking wines alongside a range of prestige cuvée champagnes.
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 weekend, we attended a veritable extravaganza of champagne and food: a tasting of 88 champagnes from 1988 organised by fizz fanatic Peter Crawford and hosted at multiple Michelin-starred restaurants Domaine Les Crayères and L’Assiette Champenoise. Read our review of every champagne tasted.
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.
Krug Rosé will from here onwards be following the example of Grande Cuvée and be displaying its Edition on the front label. The first release, Krug Rosé Edition 21 NV, is based on the magnificent 2008 vintage.
The latest release of Krug Grande Cuvée, Edition 165 NV, is the smallest and rarest batch of Grande Cuvée ever. Just released in the UK, this is a classically world-class Krug: a stunning champagne based on a unique vintage.
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.”
Yesterday, Krug launched their new Vintage 2004 in London. This latest release completes a special trilogy of Krug Vintages – 2002, 2003 & 2004 – not seen since the late 80s. We tasted it with Olivier Krug today.
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!
Each year, the expert winemaking team at Krug blend over 120 wines to make an entirely new creation of Krug Grande Cuvée. The latest release, Edition 164 – based on the outstanding 2008 vintage – may just be the best one yet.
Photographs from our Champagne tasting at Fredericks. Champagne from Bollinger, Charles Heidsieck, Krug, Dom Pérignon, Louis Roederer, Pol Roger and more
Our Blanc vs Rosé Champagne tasting on Wednesday evening was a huge success. Essi Avellan MW presented some of the world’s finest Champagnes and guests voted on their favourites. Read our review of the evening.
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.
Our definitive 2016 Vintage Report, based on Vins Clairs tastings at ten Champagne houses with the winemakers. Extreme weather has produced surprisingly fresh and balanced base wines, but what potential does 2016 really have? Read our full summary.
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!
Full coverage of our Prestige Cuvées from 2002 Champagne Tasting hosted by Jancis Robinson MW on 6th Oct 2016, including short clips of Jancis’ thoughts on each pair.
Read Jancis Robinson’s write up of our fascinating blind vertical tasting of Krug Grande Cuvée Editions from different base vintages.
A blind tasting of thirteen Rosé Champagnes and one English Sparkling with FT’s Alice Lascelles, Richard Bampfield MW, Simon Stockton and Frederick’s restaurant manager Matt. Just another Wednesday.
Krug Clos Du Mesnil 2002 – a stunning new release. Champagne from the most famous single vineyards in Champagne
Just the fourth vintage from this legendary Grand Cru vineyard, Krug released Clos d’Ambonnay 2000 earlier this month. We tasted it last week at the LVMH offices, read our thoughts here.
Our first Champagne Tasting of 2015 will be an informal walk-around event at Frederick’s, Islington on Wednesday 17th June – tasting Louis Roederer, Krug, Pol Roger & more!
In this third instalment, Richard shares an interesting tasting note from Dom Pérignon, tastes Krug 1998 and tells us what his favourite Krug is.