Krug's Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition is a champagne built from the blending of several years of harvest. This multi-vintage approach brings together several harvests to deliver a consistent house style, unswayed by the whims of any single year.
This cuvée speaks of fresh, juicy white fruit, lifted by a touch of spice that gives it added depth. The palate is full and round, carried by a wine-like structure full of character.
This is a magnum you can pour from the very start of the evening, alongside Comté gougères for instance, before bringing it to the table with Chicken with Morels.
The Terroir
The Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition is a blend of:
- 38% Chardonnay
- 51% Pinot Noir
- 11% Meunier
The Pinot Noirs come from a great many plots scattered across Champagne, harvested each year by Krug for the energy they bring. The Chardonnays are selected from plots in the Montagne de Reims, the Sézannais and the Côte des Blancs, terroirs that lend them fruit-driven, full-bodied character. On the left bank of the Vallée de la Marne, the Meuniers benefit from excellent sunlight: the plots of Leuvrigny reveal vivid, bright fruit here.
The blend also draws on reserve wines: Pinot Noirs from the southern Montagne de Reims, prized for their structure, including an Ambonnay 2005, and Chardonnays from Avize and Mesnil-sur-Oger, kept for several years for their consistency. The reserve Meuniers, notably those from 2013, contribute freshness and a finely chiselled structure.
Across this mosaic of terroirs, Chardonnay brings tension and freshness, Pinot Noir gives structure and body, while Meunier reveals roundness and fruit.
Winemaking
Julie Cavil, Krug's Cellar Master, chose to ferment this blend entirely in oak casks, a vessel that lends structure to the wine. The blend brings together 38% Chardonnay, 51% Pinot Noir and 11% Meunier. Malolactic fermentation is only partial: this choice preserves some of the grape's natural edge and freshness, while allowing a degree of roundness to settle in. The oak cask, combined with this partial malolactic fermentation, develops subtle notes of ripe fruit and a full-bodied texture on the palate. The dosage is classed as Brut: it balances the wine's vivacity without ever masking its precision. At Krug, this Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition showcases the full extent of the House's expertise, poised between tension and generosity.
A Non-Vintage Cuvée
Krug Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition is rooted in the 2014 harvest, a year with moderate rainfall and a fairly cool summer, which spared the grapes from mildew. The fine September sunshine then brought structure to the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier, while softening their acidity.
To these wines of the year are added reserve wines (wines from previous years kept in the cellar), drawn from the House's vast library of wines. This Édition thus blends 195 wines from 12 different years, from the youngest in 2014 to the oldest in 1998. Reserve wines make up 45% of the blend, lending the cuvée its breadth and roundness.
Opinion of thewine guides