2011 Krug Brut Champagne

There's an exuberant appeal to this vivid, fragrant Champagne, with wafts of lime blossoms, cardamom, ground coffee and anise aromatics finely layered with flavors of crushed black cherry, glazed tangerine and grilled nut that show a streak of salinity. Yet this reveals its true class with the deft integration of rich flavors with chiseled acidity and refined, plush texture. Long and seamless, this is not just a catchy tune but a maestro conducting a symphony. Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. (AN)

The 2011 vintage of Krug will be released at the start of the spring, and not surprisingly, it is a brilliant young wine. The final blend of this vintage is forty-six percent pinot noir, thirty-seven percent chardonnay and seventeen percent pinot meunier. The wine was disgorged in the summer of 2022. It offers up a beautifully expressive bouquet of apple, pear, fresh apricot, salty soil tones, caraway seed, almond, brioche, dried flowers and a gently smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and complex, with lovely generosity of chardonnay fruit on the attack, a fine core, lovely soil signature, elegant mousse and a long, poised and seamlessly balanced finish. There is a lovely undercarriage of structure in this wine and it will be interesting to follow it in the bottle and see if it closes down for a bit of hibernation, or if it always drinks with the lovely generosity that it is showing right out of the blocks. Though the wine is wide open in personality right now, I would still be inclined to at least tuck it away in the cellar for a half dozen years or so, just to allow some of its secondary layers of complexity to float to the surface. A fine, fine Vintage Krug.

We recently opened this bottle for a tasting with Krug themselves (a tasting that also included the Grand Cuvee 172eme and the Rose 28eme). Although there was not a unanimous staff favorite, I believe the 2011 had the most votes for top pick. This wine is remarkable. The depth, the focus, the complexity...the wine is firm and structured, full of that distinct Krug character, but through the prism of the 2011 vintage. Now, 2011 is not a particularly well-regarded vintage, so why release a bottle consisting only of fruit from that particular year? Well, Krug decides vintage releases based on one thing only; taste. So, regardless of what everyone else says about the vintage, they liked the taste, and now having tried it myself, I must say...I like the taste as well.