22 May 2023

Krug Grande Cuvée 171ème is now released for sale, ex-cellar, at £1015 per six bottles in bond.  

Each year since 2017, Krug has released a new 'Edition' of Krug Grande Cuvée, built around a single vintage but composed of many different years.  

Krug Grande Cuvée 171ème was composed around the harvest of 2015, a year marked by unprecedented heat and drought that prevailed from the end of May to mid-August, slowing grape development. Fortunately, rains in the second half of August allowed the berries to grow and, combined with sunshine and reasonable temperatures, ensured ripening in optimal conditions. To create this Edition of Krug Grande Cuvée, the Cellar Master Julie Cavil looked to accentuate the year’s elegantly diverse aromatic expressions with different plots’ reserve wines from 11 other years.

“The Chardonnays and Meuniers of 2015 showed a bit of restraint, so I looked to fresher years from our reserve wine library, including the harvests of 2008, 2013 and even 2014 to bring vivacity and tension to the blend. In this Edition of Krug Grande Cuvée, you will also find Chardonnays from warmer and more capricious years such as 2000 and 2006 that add patina and a toasty quality. The exceptional Pinot Noirs of 2015 were complemented by around 30 other expressions to bring generosity, spice and structure. Finally, Meuniers were selected from 4 harvest years to add an assertive quality and diversity to the final blend.” -Julie Cavil, Cellar Master, Champagne Krug.

Krug Grande Cuvée 171^st Edition is a blend of 131 wines from 12 different years, the youngest of which is from 2015, while the oldest dates back to 2000. Its final composition is 45% Pinot Noir, 37% Chardonnay and 18% Meunier. Reserve wines from the House’s extensive library made up 42% of the final blend. The wine has been aged for seven years in Krug’s own cellars. gives this Edition its remarkable expression and elegance.

Offered in bond, available for delivery Summer 2023.

We also have some library stock of the previous release, Krug Grande Cuvée 170éme, available at £915 per six bottles in bond:

"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. Drink 2021 - 2041. 95 points" William Kelley, RobertParker.com

"From vintages spanning from 1998 to 2014, the NV Champagne Grande Cuvee 170eme 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. 95+ points" Jebdunnuck.com

"Wonderful precision and depth right away on the nose, with dried pineapple, light apricot and hints of flint and slate. Medium-bodied palate that’s firm, bright and linear. Vivid,driven acidity adds focus and perfection. Dried lemon and a wonderful, creamy texture with a mineral undertone. Extremely long, almost endless. Sophistication here. Drink or hold. 96 points" jamessuckling.com

"Lots of acidity! Extremely lively and brisk. But it’s actually readier than most young Grandes Cuvées I have tasted at this relatively early stage with sumptuous texture actually. Very clean and fresh. Bone dry but broachable and quite charming within the Krug ethos. Really quite friendly. One of my favourites of this line-up! 18 points" jancisrobinson.com

Producer Profile

Champagne Krug, Rheims

Champagne Krug was established in Rheims in 1843 by Joseph Krug, originally from Mainz in Germany.  Champagne was a popular export to Germany and a number of famous names (including Bollinger, Taittinger, Mumm and Piper-Heidseck) had German founders, often beginning as merchants with a background in commerce who then founded their own houses.  The son of a butcher, Krug worked for Jacquesson for eight years, first in the accounting department, but later gaining experience in blending, a skill which he developed when he founded his own house. 

In more recent times, brothers Remi and Henri Krug ran the house from the 1960s, creating the concept of Krug as a 'multi-vintage' champagne (Krug's range consists entirely of prestiges cuvées, with no straightforward non-vintage).  Famously reserved, Henri Krug was a quiet, retiring individual who brought a seriousness of approach to his winemaking, which was very apparent when we met the brothers in the late 1990s.  In 2007 the house was sold to LVMH, but Henri's son Olivier Krug became its Director and is still very much the face of Krug today.

In 2010, Olivier discovered a red leather notebook at the house, containing Joseph Krug's notes from the 1840s, made whilst tasting different wines from different vineyard sites, with aim of producing a consistent blend, with a consistent house style, which would override the vagaries of vintages.  This was quite a revolutionary approach at the time.  He named his first blend 'Krug Champagne No. 1' and this numbering system was re-introduced for Grande Cuvée in 2017, with Krug Grande Cuvée 162Ème Édition, based around the 2006 vintage, being the 162nd release since Krug's first.  Since then, each new release has been numbered and based around a particular base-vintage.

Krug's range is comprised of six champagnes in total, the others being Krug Rosé, Krug Vintage, Krug Collection and the very rare Krug Clos du Mesnil and Krug Clos d'Ambonnay.  Krug Collection is essentially the vintage wine, late-disgorged after ten years' additional ageing at Krug's cellars.  Krug Clos du Mesnil comes from a single 1.84 ha plot of Chardonnay in a walled Clos created in1698 in the centre of Mesnil-sur-Oger; vintaged (i.e. from a single year) and aged in Krug's cellars for a minimum of a decade.  Krug Clos d'Ambonnay is from a single 0.68-hectare walled plot of Pinot noir in the heart of Ambonnay, aged for a minimum of 12 years.  The cellar master is Julie Cavil.  Just 760,000 bottles are made each year (compared, for example, to around 5 million for Dom Perignon!).