Ratings & Tasting Notes:
97 points Decanter
Review Date: 06/2020
45% Pinot Noir, 39% Chardonnay, 16% Meunier, blended from 140 wines dating from 1996 to 2010, including 42% reserves. Krug leads off where most other Champagne houses end, and its entry wine is every bit a prestige cuvée. It smells and tastes like no other wine, a monumental paradox of tense freshness, profound maturity and inimitable complexity. Decadently rich, extravagantly complex and thunderingly expansive, Grande Cuvée is a vinous Champagne of multifaceted personality, yet ever-heightened tension. For all it represents, spanning 25 years of production, it presents incredible value. (TZ)
96 points Wine Advocate
Review Date: 11/2018
Compared to Krug’s 160th edition, the bright golden-yellow colored NV Grande Cuvée 166ème Édition (ID117010) is still a baby that shows the chalky and fruity features of a young white Burgundy intermixed with notes of Schwarzwälder Kirsch (dark cherries with black chocolate) and floral (ammonia) flavors on the pure, fresh and elegant yet intense and still yeasty brioche nose with its ripe apple aromas and refreshingly bright (lemon juice) overtones. Round, wide and very elegant yet also straight and tense on the palate, this 2010-dominated cuvée is very delicate, fresh and chalky but also dense and lush in its vinous texture. The finish is well-structured, fresh and persistent, indicating great complexity and vibrancy. However, I would wait at least another three years, during which time the 166th edition will gain even more finesse and quiet. The 166ème Édition is composed of 140 wines from 13 different harvests between 1998 and 2010, and it’s a blend of 45% Pinot Noir with 39% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier, the latter of which provides the vivacity that the Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs surprisingly didn’t have in 2010, a vintage that was marked by its ‘tumultuous climate,’ as Eric Lebel writes. Tasted in New York in November 2018. (SR) 96+
Cult Wines International Notes:
The bottle ID: 416035 indicates that this is the 166th edition.
Composed around the harvest of 2010, Krug Grande Cuvée 166ème Édition is a blend of 140 wines from 13 different years. The youngest is from the year 2010 and the oldest dates back to 1998.
In all, reserve wines from the House’s extensive library made up 42% of the final blend, bringing the breadth and roundness so essential to each Édition of Krug Grande Cuvée.
The final composition of this champagne is 45% Pinot Noir, 39% Chardonnay and 16% Meunier.
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.
