First Taste: Krug 2011 vintage release

Champagne’s great houses are often accused of playing it safe, yet Krug begs to differ: the house has gone where few others have ventured, having chosen to celebrate the unusual 2011 growing season with a vintage release.

As cellar master Julie Cavil explains, though, the reputation of the year – or the season’s trials and tribulations on paper – counts for nothing when it comes to deciding on whether to release a vintage or to blend the wines with other years (as with the house’s flagship Grande Cuvée).

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for Krug 2011 and four other cuvées tasted

‘It’s the same philosophy, the same red carpet treatment, the same selection, the same attention to detail, it’s only the tasting which will decide if it will be part of the full orchestra [Grande Cuvée] or the music of the year with a vintage release. There is no hierarchy in our cuvées – just a different expression.’

The Krug team is not necessarily looking for the best wines of the year, but the wines that ‘tell us what happened in the tasting room…what surprised us, what had a story to tell.’

Prevailing in adversity

2011 certainly had such a story. ‘It was a year that was cut in two at flowering,’ Cavil explains. ‘Before flowering, there was record heat and dryness. After flowering, there was record rainfall and freshness. We had 70% more rain than usual.’ This intense rain caused problems across the region with botrytis, which severely tainted the reputation of the year. But what was the story for those that escaped?

The end of the season had another sting in the tail, with more intense heat and rain causing havoc with maturity and picking dates. ‘We were about to pick with over-maturity in mind, but in the end it was under-ripeness that was the challenge,’ says Cavil.

Across Champagne the extreme weather and disease pressure meant picking took place very early; at Krug this was on 25 August. Referring to the unusual balance of ripe aromatics and low sugar levels, Cavil calls it ‘one of the first vintages in which we had to face the extremes of the changing climate.’

Cavil says that the house wanted to express the ‘duality’ of the vintage: the ‘generosity’ of the Chardonnay and the ‘strict, solid’ Pinot Noir. This very small release (from a much reduced harvest across the region) represents another reminder that Champagne makes a habit – and indeed a business – of prevailing in adversity. It is no surprise that what is likely one of the last remaining 2011 Champagnes to be released may, in these hands, prove to be one of the finest.

Krug 2011 and four other cuvées tasted:

Wines are listed in score order

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