Ratings & Tasting Notes:
95 points Decanter
Review Date: 04/2022
An impression of softness rather than the compact angularity I associate with this year in Champagne. Yet there are quite lovely citric intruding details in the wine, and a pithy, chalk-silk tension. And there’s a buttery undertow adding gravitas. But all this resolves on the back palate into something sleek and more compact with great length. A sense that 2007 is transcended here by the relatively high proportion of fine, firm and fruity Meunier and the 12 different years that contribute to the modest fraction of reserve wines going back to 1990. Delightful, and this bottle being disgorged in the winter of 2019 promises much for the next five to 10 years. Main harvest: 2007. 27% reserves. Aged on lees for over 10 years. Disgorged: Late 2019. (TH)
95 points Vinous
Review Date: 07/2017
The NV Grand Cuvée 163 Edition is wonderfully open-knit and giving, qualities that make it a terrific choice for drinking now and over the next 30 or so years. Pastry, apricot, lemon confit, chamomile and white flowers, along with soft contours, give the wine its inviting, alluring personality. There is more than enough energy and overall freshness to support several decades of fine drinking. Even so, the 163 is virtually impossible to resist at this early stage. (AG)
95 points Wine Spectator
Review Date: 08/2017
A racehorse of a Champagne, this mouthwatering sparkler offers aromatic hints of toast and vanilla lacing the tightly knit profile of crème de cassis, ground coffee and mandarin orange peel flavors, with a long thread of anise and cardamom spice notes unraveling on the palate. This is like raw silk. (AN)
Cult Wines International Notes:
The bottle ID: 114005 indicates that this is the 163rd edition.
Composed around the harvest of 2007, Krug Grande Cuvée 163ème Édition is a blend of 145 wines from 12 different years. The youngest is from the year 2007 and the oldest dates back to 1990.
The final composition of this champagne is 37% Pinot Noir, 32% Chardonnay and 31% Meunier.
In all, over 20 years of careful craftsmanship were necessary to enjoy Krug Grande Cuvée 163ème Édition.
Maison Krug, founded in Reims in 1843 by Joseph Krug, was established on a radical, visionary philosophy: to produce the absolute best Champagne possible every single year, completely defying the unpredictable variations of the annual climate. Rejecting the standard industry hierarchy that placed single-vintage Champagnes at the pinnacle, Joseph sought to create an ultimate, multi-vintage prestige cuvée. This concept evolved into the iconic Krug Grande Cuvée, the house’s foundational masterpiece. Rather than relying on a single harvest, Krug operates under a strict “one plot, one wine” philosophy, vinifying hundreds of individual vineyard parcels separately. Every year, the Chef de Cave conducts the monumental task of blending around 120 to 200 distinct base wines spanning more than ten different vintages—some of which are aged up to 15 years in Krug’s vast library. This meticulous process acts as a masterfully conducted symphony, where the extensive reserve wines act as the “seasoning” to achieve a signature profile of immense depth, opulent complexity, and a toasted, brioche-driven richness that cannot be replicated by a single year alone.
Because Krug Grande Cuvée is an annual re-creation composed of a vast tapestry of seasons rather than a single year’s harvest, it does not have a traditional, single “growing season.” Instead, each bottle is designated by an “Édition” number, which counts every year the founder’s dream has been fulfilled since 1843. The foundation of any given Édition is built around a specific base year—which dictates the baseline climate, yield, and vibrant acidity of the youngest wines—while the older library reserves are strategically selected to counteract that specific year’s natural deficiencies or climatic excesses. For example, if a base year suffers from a damp summer or scorching heat, the cellarmaster draws heavily upon contrasting, chiseled, or voluptuous reserve wines from the cellar to restore perfect balance. Once the intricate blending of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier is complete, the wine undergoes an arduous maturation process, resting on its lees for at least six to seven years in the deep chalk cellars of Reims. This extensive aging brings a profound patina of elegance, structural tension, and longevity, ensuring that regardless of the year it was bottled, each glass of Grande Cuvée delivers the house’s legendary, unchanging promise of ultimate generosity.
Bottle Size:
375 mL – Half Bottle
Storage History:
Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.
Condition:
Outstanding condition.
Please note: The condition of the bottle you will receive is accurately reflected by the one shown in the images.
