2008 Krug Brut Champagne

This is very structured and framed with an almost red sensibility. Very phenolic. Full-bodied in a tightly wound ball with so much going on. Very pinot like. Mineral and stone. Shell and stone. Iodine. Vinous. The bubbles just fade into the finish of the wine, which goes on for minutes. Turns to toffee and salted caramel with time in the glass. One for the cellar. Great length. Blend of 53% Pinot Noir, 25% Pinot Meunier, 22% Chardonnay. Disgorged in beginning of 2020. (11/2021)

Just at the beginning of its life, this powerful and structured wine is still a bit restrained, yet even at this stage there are exquisite aromas of ripe pear, marzipan and spice. Although the aromas are still not very expressive, the texture and feel on the palate give the impression of immense potential. There is plenty of extract and thrilling acidity, but always in perfect balance. As Cavil notes: 'This is a wine marked by verticality and intensity'. The wine was disgorged with an extra-brut dosage in the summer of 2020. This will live for 50 years at least. (CC) (6/2022)

There’s a supernova of sensation with each sip of this powerful version, starting with the vivid streak of mouthwatering acidity that drives a rich panoply of ripe black currant, mandarin orange peel and grilled nut flavors, accented by hints of candied ginger, briny oyster shell, verbena and ground cardamom. This burns bright from start to finish, yet its fine integration and lovely, raw silk–like mousse pull it all together into a seamless, vibrant package. *Top 100 Wines of 2021* (AN) (11/2021)

The 2008 Vintage bottling from Krug just continues to get better each time I am fortunate enough to taste it. I last tasted this wine a year ago and it has not seemingly aged a bit since that time, as it remains a glorious vintage here that will demand plenty of patience before it properly blossoms. The bouquet remains beautifully precise and bottomless, offering up scents of apple, tart pear, lemon, a beautiful base of chalky minerality, patissière, dried flowers, blossoming smokiness, just a touch of caraway seed in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and structured, with a snappy girdle of acidity, a rock solid core, great mineral drive and grip, elegant mousse and a very, long, bright and seamlessly balanced finish of enormous potential complexity. All this great, great vintage of Krug needs is more time alone in the cellar. (3/2022)

The 2008 Vintage is a nervy, electrifying Champagne, the likes of which has not emerged from Krug's cellars since the magical 1996. Bright and sculpted, with tremendous precision, the 2008 dazzles from start to finish. Stylistically, the 2008 doesn't have the toastiness or explosive breadth often found in young Krug, but that in no way detracts from its magnificent beauty. (AG) (3/2021)

A vintage Champagne from this producer is rare. But 2008 was a great year in Champagne and that shows in this intense, still amazingly young wine. Freshness works with the richness to give concentration, density and the sure-fire possibility of long-term aging. So drink now, but the Champagne will last for many years. (RV) (12/2021)

Krug's 2008 Brut is slated to be released at the end of 2021, but any readers who purchase the wine will need to exercise considerably more patience if they are to enjoy it in its prime, as it is very tightly wound out of the gates. Unwinding in the glass with a youthfully discreet bouquet of clear honey, dried fruit, walnut oil, Meyer lemon and rock salt, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and incisive, with a racy spine of acidity, a pretty pinpoint mousse and a penetrating, saline finish. The polar stylistic opposite of the rich, demonstrative 2006, the 2008 is a rather understated, taut vintage from Krug that isn't as liberally endowed with the house's characteristic toasty patina as its immediate predecessor. (WK) (9/2021)

Released in the fall of 2021, the wine is dense and concentrated, still tightly wound. While it shows some savory maturity, the wine’s meaty intensity suggest its evolution has barely begun. Great Krug vintages last for decades, and this one should evolve into a classic. (12/2021)

Pale greenish coppery colour. Intense evolved nose. A certain nuttiness and lots of lime flavour. Masses of acidity still but real depth too. Light bitterness. Lack of flesh. Structure dominates the filling. Mineral, almost wet cement on nose! Very dry finish. This one should run and run. Extremely zesty. 18+/20 points (JR) (5/2021)

The 2008 Krug is composed of 53% Pinot Noir, 25% Meunier, and 22% Chardonnay. As always, the wine is 100% barrel fermented in used barrels, so as not to give the wine oak flavors, but instead to introduce oxygen to the wine in its infancy. Our bottle was disgorged in fall of 2019, after more than a decade of ageing on the lees and two-and-a-half years on the cork before we enjoyed it. The color was light gold and promised great richness. I was surprised that the high-quality Chardonnay was the first thing to jump out at me aromatically. There is a lime component that reminded me of a Coche-Dury Enseigneres in its striking purity. But the 2008 Krug goes beyond that with hazelnut depth from its top-class, barrel-fermented Pinot Noir and the profound savor of old-vine Meunier. Amazingly, the wine is completely elegant on the mid-palate, without a trace of heaviness. The power comes on the finish: this wine fans out in a peacock’s tail of complexity and swells up showing more concentration than when it is in the mouth. The legendary acidity of 2008 carries the chalky minerality of the finish on and on. (Gary Westby, K&L Champagne Buyer)