a fine wine tasting archive
4 notes
Krug declared three vintages in a row — 1988, 1989, 1990 — and 1990 was the ripest of them. This was the original release, not the later Collection re-issue: thirty-six years under its own cork, and still carrying its acidity.
For Krug, a vintage is not 'a wine from a good year' but a portrait of a year too distinctive to blend away. Thirty years on, the 1995 — Champagne's first generous season after a difficult run — still stands upright.
Krug's Vintage is a portrait of a single year, released only after a decade or more in the cellars. At thirty-five, the 1989 — a sun-blessed, generous season — stood at the absolute peak of maturity, opulent yet never slack.
Krug's own tasting committee nicknamed the 1998 'A Tribute to Chardonnay' — only the second vintage in the house's history led by that grape. At twenty-two years, it was the Champagne asked to open an evening of serious Burgundy.