Of the many crucial decisions made at the desk of a Chef de Caves, the decision to elaborate a single vintage Champagne is one of the most complex, especially when you’re talking about a Maison that will then slide that tranche back into the cellar for a number of years.
These longer lead time Champagnes (relative to every-day NV bottlings) mean that many consumers will have long forgotten the story of the season by the time it is released to market, in the case of some Vintage Champagnes, at ten years of age. To make that kind of commitment is a massive undertaking in today’s ever faster-moving commercial conditions.
The first question around the table is the quality of the vintage in question. There’s little point in sending wine on an underground road to nowhere and then having to deal with the aftermath of peddling a soft offering. But few in the role of Chef de Caves would make that mistake more than once in a lifetime – a career-ending move you’d have to assume.
Then there’s the Chef de Caves management call – maybe the house has a good run of vintages already cellaring? The Champenoise track sales more closely than most in the wine business, and they simply can’t afford to overstock the cellar.
There may also be an opportunity to put away some portions of particularly striking reserve wines instead of building them into a vintage release. This was a decision taken at Krug in 2012, when Chef de Caves Eric Lebel seized the opportunity to stow some particularly good reserve wines away for future use. With Krug’s non-vintage Grande Cuvée being such an important wine, it is easy to see why he’d take a protective position.
Then there’s the question of style and this one is an interesting one to tease out. 2003 was a vintage of extremes in Champagne with a dry winter and spring prompting very early flowering followed by two serious frosts and climaxing in a summer of killer heat – sounds almost biblical! Harvest was extremely long and fractured, beginning in August and finishing in October.
We have seen only a few vintage Champagnes released from 2003 and many have been presented for their controversial and boldly atypical appeal. An eccentric Dom Perignon caused a stir, there’s also the Bollinger approach in which they released a one-off 2003 by Bollinger
Lebel sums up the 2003 release for Krug as “an entirely natural decision; the distinctive circumstances of the year revealed an unexpected story which surprised and inspired me, my team and the rest of the members of the tasting committee.”
Tasting this Champagne a week or two ago I get Lebel’s surprise. It is a wine that sits eerily in step with the mix of brooding complexity, assertive driving purity and bracing freshness that Krug Vintage seems to consistently attain. It was a contradictory moment – way better than I expected from this vintage, but every bit as good as I expected from this producer.
As to why it is such a good fit, there are many possible explanations. The complex style of Krug’s DNA is not to be underestimated, nor is the quality of the vineyard parcels that it is built on. Then there’s the ten years in the cellar to assimilate. The most likely explanation is all of these and more and, any which way you look at it, the Champagne is very good, perhaps the best of the vintage.
2003 Krug Vintage
Looking very fresh and complex with plenty of richness and caramelised autolysis characters. Quite distinctively fragrant chardonnay notes of citrus, stone fruits and melon, it heads into spicy territory, very resolved and composed, with nutty bready nuances as well as chalky notes. There’s trademark kaleidoscopic appeal. The palate has depth and composure with assertive acidity set amid supple fleshy chardonnay grapefruit and white peach sorbet flavours, lemon pith and nougat too. Long majestic and commanding dark nutty red grape flavours and phenolics drive the palate long. This suits the style and stacks up admirably. Drink now. (95 points)
Nick Stock is a renowned Australian wine writer, author, presenter and filmmaker who reports on his worldwide wine tasting experiences for JamesSuckling.com.
