Krug Champagne is one of the most sought after and unique champagnes in the world. The Champagne house was established in 1843 by Joseph Krug. He was a visionary non-conformist who built up an extensive library of reserve wines from many different years.
He believed that in order to create the most generous expression of champagne, he had to blend the best grapes from each vintage into a single champagne.
Krug Champagne is considered a non-vintage champagne since it does not contain grapes from a single year. But it is much more complex than other non-vintage champagnes because the champagne consists of grapes from more than 10 different years and more than a hundred different wines.
It is also aged for at least six years before release so you can say that it takes at least 16 years to produce a bottle of Krug champagne!
Krug is a very exclusive brand and has selected restaurants all around the world to be Krug Ambassades that Krug believes are culinary destination where gastronomic excellence meets the finest champagnes.
Each year, in order to celebrate Krug week at these restaurants, Krug invites Krug Ambassade chefs to interpret a single ingredient to pair with a glass of Krug Grande Cuvée or Krug Rosé. This year, the single ingredient is flower.
I was fortunate to taste a number of Krug champagnes paired with dishes prepared by Chef Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson using this theme ingredient:
Krug Grande Cuvée: We tasted the 170th and 171st edition of this champagne. The 171st edition uses 131 wines from 12 vintages between 2000 and 2015. It is a blend of 45 per cent Pinot Noir, 37 per cent Chardonnay and 18 per cent Pinot Meunier grapes. It smells like a spring bloom of flowers with a citrus notes. It has great acidity and is creamy with grapefruit, lemon, raspberry, almond paste and ginger flavours, finishing with a hazelnut and brioche aftertaste.
The 170th edition uses 195 wines from 12 different vintages from 1998 to 2014. It is a blend of 51 per cent Pinot Noir, 38 per cent Chardonnay and 11 per cent Pinot Meunier grapes. In comparison to the 171st edition, I found this champagne a bit richer in flavour and more developed. In addition to the tastes I found with the 171st edition, I picked up some dried apricot and marzipan flavours on the palate. The 170th edition was paired with a summer tomato panzanella with burrata and the 171st edition was paired with a magnificent smoked steelhead fish with preserved flowers.
Krug Rosé: we tasted the 27th edition of this wine. It uses 38 wines from nine vintages from 2005 to 2015. It is a blend of 57 per cent Pinot Noir, 23 per cent Chardonnay and 20 per cent Pinot Meunier grapes. I found this champagne to be still quite youthful with rose petals, pink grapefruit, red currants and smoked meat on the nose accompanied by honey, citrus and black plums on the palate, with slight spicy oak aftertaste. It complemented Chef Gus’ chicken liver dish very well.
Krug Vintage: Published on Main in Vancouver offers Krug’s 2006 vintage champagne by the bottle. According to Krug, their vintage champagne is not the selection of the best wines of a particular year, but rather the expression of that year according to Krug. This wine is composed only of wines from a single year. It is a blend of 48 per cent Pinot Noir, 35 per cent Chardonnay and 17 per cent Pinot Meunier grapes and is aged 12 years in cellar before release (compared to seven years for Krug Grand Cuvee). I found mandarin oranges, almonds, maple syrup, nougat and pink grapefruit on the palate. It is an exceptionally smooth and creamy champagne to drink.
For a more detailed description of these wines and the dishes that accompanied each champagne, click here.
Krug Week at Published on Main occurs Sept. 13 to 22. During that week, they will offer the 171st edition of the Krug Grande Cuvee by the glass for $100/5 ounces and the Krug Rose by the glass for $150/5 ounces. It seems expensive for a glass of champagne until you consider that Krug champagne is very difficult to find for purchase and even if you find it, a bottle will run you between $500 to $700 a bottle.
This is a rare opportunity to try this iconic champagne at a fraction of the regular price for a bottle. The chicken liver dish will be also offered in either a full or half portion to pair with the champagnes. If you have the means, splurge a little. Until next time, happy drinking!
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