Krug Grande Cuvee 171st Edition Gift Box NV (750ml)
Product price
$299.99
Description
Multi-vintage blending is the heart of this style, and the 171st Edition of Krug's Grande Cuvée is built around a 2015 base, a warm and dry year, fleshed out with reserve wines reaching back across more than a decade and a half (some as far as 2000). Champagne made this way trades the snapshot of a single harvest for layered continuity, secondary fermentation in the bottle giving the fine, persistent mousse. This is a blend drawn from well over a hundred individual wines, white and built for the long haul.
Expect a wine that feels both taut and generous. There's citrus zest and ginger up front, orange marmalade and ripe stone fruit (mandarin, apricot, peach) carrying the sunniness of the base year, before it deepens into toasted brioche, praline, almond and a coffee-cream note. A saline, zesty thread keeps everything lifted, and floral teas like chamomile run through the middle. It's full-bodied and rounded with a faint warmth on the close, but the finish gains momentum, turning rich and long. Drinking beautifully now, with the depth to reward years of patience.
Expert Reviews
The tightness and tension of this is impressive considering the youngest wine from this is 2015 (hot and dry year), with some wines going back to 2000. Ginger and orange zest. Some creme brulee. It's medium-bodied with apple, pie crust and floral character. It's salty and zesty yet, at the same time, complex and gorgeous. Chamomile and other floral teas highlight everything. Turns rich and flavorful at the finish. Terrific release. Really takes off at the end. (James Suckling, August 2023)
Two years on from its disgorgement, this 2015-based edition has settled beautifully, showing all the sunniness of the base year with its mandarin and apricot plushness, surprisingly smooth and silky up front before settling into its broad, inviting range of praline, cappuccino and bitter almond aromatics and subtle fruit skin chewiness. It's a punchy, fulsome edition thanks to the base year's intensity, but it has been beautifully tamed into a characteristically suave and multilayered Grande Cuvée. A blend of 131 wines, with reserves back to the year 2000. (TH). (Decanter, February 2024)
Spanning from 1998 through the 2015 vintage, the NV Champagne Grande Cuvée 171 is lush with a kaleidoscope of aromas including orange marmalade, toasted brioche, almond, and ripe peaches. Full-bodied and rounded, it has a hint of warmth on the finish, but it’s highly attractive, balanced, and long, with outstanding depth and richness. This fantastic expression of the Grand Cuvée is gorgeous right out of the gate and will be a great addition for collectors to enjoy over the coming two decades. Drink 2023-2043. (Jeb Dunnuck, November 2023)