This is full-bodied and very rich with lots of dried and fresh lemons with lemon curd and delicate Italian croissant. Fine and flavorful. Drink or hold.
The NV Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition, (2014 base vintage) is rich, ample and explosive. Wonderfully fresh and vibrant, the 170 offers an exotic mélange of dried orchard fruit, pear, spice and crushed flowers. Chef de Caves Eric Lebel was not especially excited about 2014 when I saw him a few months after the harvest, as yields in Pinot Noir and Meunier were adversely affected. Perhaps for that reason the 170 contains more reserve wines than most editions. Regardless, the Krug team crafted an absolutely brilliant Grande Cuvée. The blend is 51% Pinot Noir, 38% Chardonnay and 11% Meunier, vintages 2014 through 1998. Disgorged: Autumn 2021. Krug ID: 421062.
The numbering indicates this is the 170th blending of this Champagne. This iteration has a fine poise—it's mature and toasty on the one hand and offers rich fruit on the other. It is a finely balanced wine that is ripe and full in the mouth. Drink this beautiful wine now.
Fermented in small barrels averaging 20 years of age and moved into stainless steel after three months. This edition is really waking up now, jumping with lime syrup, caramelised apple tart and raspberry with a beautiful lift of jasmine and coffee. Clean lines, narrow and ageworthy, impeccably balanced with detailed length. Notably unoaky and energetic in the context of this tasting.
Krug's NV Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition is based on the 2014 vintage, complemented by some 45% reserve wines dating back to 1998, with the house drawing on, among many others, 2013 for structure and 2012 and 2003 for generosity. Opening in the glass with aromas of pastry cream, dried fruits, pear, warm spices, freshly baked bread and vanilla pod, it's medium to full-bodied, pillowy and fine-boned, with excellent concentration, racy acids and a precise, chiseled profile. But if the latter adjective could be applied to the 2013-base 169ème édition equally felicitously, the 2014-base 170ème is more giving and less tightly wound out of the gates and will offer more demonstrative drinking young.
A lovely, mouthwatering Champagne, with a vivid and finely detailed panoply of baked nectarine, lime blossom, ground coffee, mandarin orange peel, candied ginger and salted almond notes set in a lithe, limber frame. Seamlessly knit, with a sense of buoyant vitality, this has a harmonious, elegant frame for the richly expressive flavor range. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier. Disgorged winter 2020 to 2021. Drink now through 2027.
#25 in Top 100, 2022. From vintages spanning from 1998 to 2014, the NV Champagne 170th Edition is decadent and nuanced, with a rounded perfume of toasted brioche, lemon curd, and honeydew melon. Ripe yellow orchard fruits fill the palate with nectarine, fresh grapefruit pith, and a core of acidity. This is showing wonderfully now, although it still has the tension to go for the next 20 years.
Winery Notes
Every year since the foundation of the House of Krug, a new Édition of Krug Grande Cuvée is created to offer the most generous expression of Champagne.
This bottle belongs to the 170ème Édition of Krug Grande Cuvée, a blend of 195 wines from 12 different years. The youngest is from the year 2014 and the oldest dates back to 1998. A stay of around seven years in Krug’s cellars gives this Édition its remarkable expression and elegance. Every glass poured from it is the fruit of more than 20 years of careful craftsmanship.
Krug Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition was composed around the harvest of 2014, an erratic year that oscillated between hot dry spells, and cool rainy periods. Vines developed under good conditions, ensuring a generous harvest. The contrasting weather preserved freshness and resulted in great heterogeneity throughout the region, underscoring the importance of the House’s plot-by-plot approach.
To create this Édition of Krug Grande Cuvée, the Cellar Master looked to accentuate the year’s elegantly diverse aromatic expressions with different plots’ reserve wines from 11 other years. The careful attention given to the vines and Krug’s unique respect for the individual character of each plot enabled the breadth of expression of this Édition of Krug Grande Cuvée.
In all, reserve wines from the House’s extensive library made up 45% of the final blend, bringing the breadth and roundness so essential to each Édition of Krug Grande Cuvée.
The final composition of this bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée is 51% Pinot Noir, 38% Chardonnay and 11% Meunier.