Grande Cuvée 169

The wine in this vintage

For Grande Cuvée 169th Edition the base harvest is 2013, a late, cool year in Champagne, with picking pushed into the autumn and wines of fine acid tension. Blending with a wide range of reserve wines added breadth and warmth, giving rise to a particularly elegant, lifted Champagne. The nose is fine and chiselled, with citrus, white flowers, apple, fresh almond and a delicate note of toast; on the palate the mousse is silky, the freshness vibrant and the finish long and saline. James Suckling awarded it 97 points and Jancis Robinson 18.5/20. Edition 169 is already fully enjoyable, yet it has a fine evolution ahead; its taut character makes it well suited to a few years of cellaring too.

The producer · Krug

Founded in Reims in 1843 by Joseph Krug, the house was built on an idea as simple as it was radical: to craft the finest Champagne possible every single year, regardless of the vagaries of the weather. That vision gave rise to Grande Cuvée, a blend of more than a hundred wines from different years and plots, drawn from one of the largest libraries of reserve wines in Champagne. Every plot is vinified separately in small, well-seasoned oak casks that let the wine breathe without marking it with wood, and time on the lees is among the longest in the region. Alongside its blends, Krug produces two legendary single-plot wines: Clos du Mesnil, a walled Chardonnay vineyard in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, and Clos d'Ambonnay, a tiny walled parcel of Pinot Noir. Now part of LVMH yet still shaped by the Krug family and its winemaking team, the house remains the benchmark for anyone who looks to Champagne for the depth, complexity and longevity of a truly great wine.

Critics' scores

• 97 James Suckling
• 94 Antonio Galloni
• 18.5/20 Jancis Robinson

Technical details

Producer

Krug

Region

Champagne

Country

Francia

Type

Bollicine

Vintage

169

When to drink

Hold, still evolving

Critics' average

95.5/100

Sizes

75 cl, Magnum 150 cl, Case of 6 × 75 cl

eWibe code

0610469