Krug, Grande Cuvée, Edition, 170th
Toasty stone fruits on the nose with an abundance of peach and nectarine alongside smoky crushed flint aromas. More citrus led on the palate with lemon tart, orange peel, and chalky minerality. Delicate vanilla scented almond pastry and French toast coalesce on the gloriously long finish. This is still young and primal, but wonderfully structured and poised.
critic reviews
The NV Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition, (2014 base vintage) is rich, ample and explosive. Wonderfully fresh and vibrant, the 170 offers an exotic mélange of dried orchard fruit, pear, spice and crushed flowers. Chef de Caves Eric Lebel was not especially excited about 2014 when I saw him a few months after the harvest, as yields in Pinot Noir and Meunier were adversely affected. Perhaps for that reason the 170 contains more reserve wines than most editions. Regardless, the Krug team crafted an absolutely brilliant Grande Cuvée. The blend is 51% Pinot Noir, 38% Chardonnay and 11% Meunier, vintages 2014 through 1998. Disgorged: Autumn 2021. Krug ID: 421062.
Krug's NV Grande Cuvee 170eme Edition is based on the 2014 vintage, complemented by some 45% reserve wines dating back to 1998, with the house drawing on, among many others, 2013 for structure and 2012 and 2003 for generosity. Opening in the glass with aromas of pastry cream, dried fruits, pear, warm spices, freshly baked bread and vanilla pod, it's medium to full-bodied, pillowy and fine-boned, with excellent concentration, racy acids and a precise, chiseled profile. But if the latter adjective could be applied to the 2013-base 169eme edition equally felicitously, the 2014-base 170eme is more giving and less tightly wound out of the gates and will offer more demonstrative drinking young.