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Krug Grande Cuvée 173ème Édition
In Reims, Krug built the 173ème Édition of Grande Cuvée around the difficult 2017 harvest, then reached back as far as 2001 to complete the blend. The finished Champagne draws on 150 wines from 13 different years.
Interesting facts
- Reserve wines make up 31% of the 173ème Édition, a high-stakes use of Krug’s library to balance a complicated 2017 base year.
- The oldest wine in the blend comes from 2001 and the youngest from 2017, so the bottle compresses 17 harvest years into one release.
- Krug’s tasting committee evaluates about 400 wines and records around 5,000 tasting notes in the months after harvest before the final blend is made.
- James Suckling gave Krug Grande Cuvée 173ème Édition Brut 97 points.
- LVMH bought Krug in 1999; the house remains part of the LVMH Wines & Spirits portfolio.
The winery
Joseph Krug founded the house in Reims in 1843 with a demanding idea: Champagne should not be held hostage by a single year’s weather. His answer was Grande Cuvée, rebuilt each year from the new harvest and a deep library of reserve wines. That decision made blending the central act at Krug.
The house’s identity rests on tasting plot by plot, keeping wines apart, and using older reserves not as decoration but as structural tools.
The family connection has not disappeared inside the modern luxury group era. Krug has remained associated with six generations of the family, with Olivier Krug representing the sixth generation while Julie Cavil leads the cellar work.
Grape varieties & winemaking
- Composition: 44% Pinot Noir, 34% Chardonnay, 22% Meunier; 31% reserve wines in the final blend.
- Origin: No parcel or village source breakdown has been published for this edition.
- Growing season: Built around the 2017 harvest, a warm and complicated Champagne year in which Krug aimed to pick early and finished harvesting while many others were just beginning.
- Assemblage: 150 wines from 13 different years, with the youngest from 2017 and the oldest from 2001.
- Process and ageing: Matured about seven years on lees; dosage 4.5 g/L.
In the glass
- Nose
- Wet stones, lemon rind, honeycomb, white peach, citrus blossom, ripe yellow stone fruit, brioche and lemon curd.
- Palate
- Powerful and precise, with mineral texture, bright acidity, spice, tension and a savory finish.
Technical details
- Region
- Champagne, France
- Grape / mash bill
- 44% Pinot Noir, 34% Chardonnay, 22% Meunier
- ABV
- 12.0%
- Serving notes
- Serve well chilled in a white-wine glass rather than a narrow flute to give the aromatics room.
Real result from Bottle Stories. Stories are written by AI and may contain mistakes.
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