Krug Grande Cuvée Brut NV

Krug's Grande Cuvée is the benchmark against which other prestige Champagnes get measured, and it is not a vintage wine. That is the whole point of it. Joseph Krug's idea, back in 1843, was that the finest Champagne should not be hostage to the weather in a single year.

So each release is assembled from more than 120 individual wines drawn from ten or more different harvests. The youngest year makes up the bulk of the blend and gives it flesh; the reserve wines, some held back a decade or more in Krug's cellars, supply the depth and the nutty, savoury register the house is known for. Every release carries an edition number on the label, and each spends around seven years on its lees before disgorgement.

The aromatics are unmistakably Krug: white flowers and fresh hazelnut, bread dough, and underneath it a gunflint-and-chalk minerality. Citrus zest and green apple lift it, with brioche and honeycomb arriving as the wine warms. The mousse is extraordinarily fine and it lasts. On the palate there is stone fruit, honey and that characteristic nuttiness, carried on an acidity that never turns sharp. The mid-palate has real weight. The finish is long, dry and mineral, and it keeps going well after you have swallowed.

Give it time and a proper glass and it repays both.

How to Serve

Chill to 8-10°C and pour it into a white wine glass rather than a flute — Krug themselves recommend it, and a wine carrying this much aroma needs the room. Don't rush it. It keeps opening for an hour.

Where to Drink It

Scott's in Mayfair, alongside a plate of native oysters. Wiltons on Jermyn Street for the full occasion. The Connaught Bar if the evening is starting rather than ending with it.

Food Pairings

Native oysters when they are in season — the salinity and the chalk in the wine were made for one another. Otherwise a whole roast chicken, properly rested, which sounds far too plain for the money and absolutely is not.