Olivier Krug was in London last week to present the Champagne house’s 2011 vintage, a year marked by the third "August" harvest in Champagne history.
This vintage was challenging, with erratic weather patterns resulting in variable quality for black grapes, while Chardonnay performed much better.
As with recent vintage releases from Krug, the 2011 vintage was presented alongside the Grande Cuvée blend based on the same harvest, offering a fascinating comparison, particularly given the difficult conditions of 2011. Described as a "mixed bag" by winemakers, the harvest started as early as August 19 in the southernmost Côte des Bar region.
The growing season began early due to a warm, dry March with unusually long sunshine hours. April continued the trend with exceptional warmth and very little rain, resulting in vines being about three weeks ahead of the average by May, leading to early flowering, especially in the Côte des Blancs. However, cooler and more humid weather in July and August, including a sudden heatwave just before harvesting, caused the vines to stress and halt maturation.
Olivier Krug noted, "It was the earliest flowering ever in 2011, and with August harvests in 2003, 2007, and 2011, this started to look like a four-year cycle." Krug began picking on August 25 and finished on September 3. Chardonnay was the standout variety, much like the 2023 harvest, which also experienced extreme heat just before picking, though in 2023 it occurred in early September rather than August.
Tasting the Wine
To set the stage, we started with the current release of Krug Grande Cuvée, 171ème Édition, based on the 2015 harvest. Olivier Krug described it as a blend of 12 different years, with 2000 being the oldest and 2015 the youngest. The 2015 vintage was notable for being the hottest ever recorded, surpassing 2003 and 1976, and also one of the driest. One winemaker described it as a "dream year! Sunny, dry, no downy mildew, no rot, 98% of our vineyards could have been organic!"
Krug's head winemaker, Julie Cavil, aims to create "the most generous expression of Champagne each year" with the Grande Cuvée. For the 171ème Édition, she included fresher years from the reserve library, such as 2008, 2013, and 2014, to bring vivacity and tension to the blend, and used Meuniers from four harvests to add assertiveness.
Next, we tasted two contrasting vintages from Krug: 2004 and 2006, before moving to the new 2011 vintage. The 2004 vintage, nicknamed "luminous freshness," and the 2006 vintage, known as "capricious indulgence," showcased their respective styles effectively.
Introducing the 2011 Vintage
The 2011 vintage, dubbed "spirited roundness" by winemaker Cavil and her team, is a blend of 46% Pinot Noir, 37% Chardonnay, and 17% Meunier. Cavil described it as "opulent and crisp," combining finesse and power with a spontaneous and vibrant character to create a wine that is "ample, generous, and assertive." At release, it has the citrus freshness akin to the 2004 vintage rather than the richer 2006.
These days, given the prevalence of warm sunny harvests, achieving the right balance in any Grande Cuvée blend involves finding freshness in the reserve wines rather than adding richness. While finding suitable Chardonnay, which makes up 37% of the 2011 blend, was not an issue, sourcing enough quality Pinot Noir (46% of the blend) proved more challenging. Meunier contributes the remaining 17%.
LVMH's access to top terroirs certainly helps, and one might wonder if Krug would have produced the 2011 vintage had Dom Pérignon released its 2011. Olivier Krug mentioned that they like to have enough stock for two years of sales and noted that more wine was made in 2011 than in 2003.
The tasting concluded with Grande Cuvée, 167ème Édition, also based on the 2011 harvest but incorporating 191 individual wines from 13 different years, with the oldest dating back to 1995. Interestingly, its grape composition is almost identical to the 2011 vintage: 47% Pinot Noir, 36% Chardonnay, and 17% Meunier. Despite being disgorged in the third quarter of 2018 and benefiting from around five and a half years of post-disgorgement aging, the wines currently sit at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of complexity.
If the goal of showcasing these two wines together is to demonstrate the completeness and aging potential inherent in every Grande Cuvée blend, it’s certainly a great success, though the 167ème Édition does tend to overshadow the new vintage release.
Source: The Drinks Business