Uutiset
What is the best champagne of all time? In my opinion, this is a question for which there is no single answer. And yet, so many wine magazine articles written by so many wine experts still try to find the ultimate answer year after year.
This is a question that seems to have a different “right” answer every time, depending on who is asking and when.
This is a question whose reasonableness – or even necessity – can have many perspectives. This is also a question that I believe no one other than the person asking it could provide the correct answer to. The answer you invariably come up with is entirely subjective – all others are virtually meaningless.
In my case, I found this ultimate answer in a cozy showroom of the Krug champagne house, where I had the privilege of joining Rémi Krug to taste one of the rarest and most famous champagnes in the world - the Krug 1928. The champagne was perfection itself, probably the best champagne I have ever tasted. But is it the best champagne ever? For me, it certainly does!
The tasting alone put the Krug 1928 at the top of my personal list, and when that experience was further broadened and deepened by the many chapters of the Krug 1928 story, recounted by Rémi as we savored this ambrosia, it there was no room for doubt.
Krug surplus by Remi Krug
“At this time, Krug's main market was England – particularly for Krug Vintage – and England's major wine merchants generally ordered and paid for an allocated quantity of Krug Vintage at an early stage, i.e. -say just after bottling and well before delivery. This is largely the same practice used today with en primeur purchases in Bordeaux. Indeed, English merchants bought the 1928 vintage at a very bad time, just as the economic crash of 1929 was affecting livelihoods and the threat of war was looming on the horizon. Experts' high expectations of this rare vintage, Krug's reputation, the lack of good vintages in the early 1920s, and the limited availability of Krug 1928 made it a major commercial success.
When the war broke out in 1939, our cellars still contained a large quantity of lots already paid for by the English, so my grandfather Joseph very wisely decided to buy them back in order to avoid them falling into the hands of the Germans. At the end of the war, he offered the wines he had saved to the original buyers, but some of them no longer wanted the entire quantity of that vintage, opting instead for partial or total substitution with a later vintage (1937). So my grandfather kept the “surplus” (what a strange word to use for a Krug!) for himself. This is why we were able to appreciate this unique vintage and follow its evolution! »
Tiny Glasses
Rémi was also kind enough to tell me a little about his own personal memories of the 1928 Krug:
“I first tasted 1928 at my grandfather’s house, where each of the five grandchildren took turns for lunch each week, each on our own day. My day was Thursday. Because the middle of the week was free at that time in France, I was able to stay at my grandparents' house after lunch and listen to stories about their lives, our family, the city and the wars - it was something about which they had a lot to say!
At lunch I always had a little drop of Krug in a little kids champagne flute as well as Bordeaux – that’s how I found most of the Bordeaux that I love. The Krug was, naturally, a great vintage, but once or twice a year we were able to enjoy the famous Krug 1928 – I still remember the rich, tender and enchanting magic of those few drops of divine nectar from my childhood.
Later, when I started working for Krug in 1965, I was allowed to join my father and Henri on those special occasions, when a bottle was opened and shared with the guests. This could have happened once a year, so these opportunities were not to be missed - or forgotten. On one of these occasions we enjoyed two bottles of Krug 1928 with Serena Sutcliffe and David Peppercorn; One of the bottles came from my grandfather's stores and was corked before the war in 1939. The second corking of the other bottle was done in the late 1940s. The tasting was completely blind – we didn't We didn't even say which Krug we were drinking. Naturally, Serena and David recognized that they were the same wines, and found a little more vivacity and passion in, as it turned out, the wine whose bottle had been corked before the war; Another demonstration of our long-standing “apathy” regarding the importance of a second closure.
Up to the last drop !
I would like to end with a very personal and precious anecdote: at the end of the 1960s, when my grandfather, Joseph Krug, was approaching the ripe old age of 100, he summoned Henri and me to ask how much Krug 1928 he had left in his personal stores. When we told him, he proclaimed, "Well, boys, I know I'm supposed to cut down on my drinking, but when I turn 100, we'll have a big party and drink all that Krug 1928 - Up to the last drop! » I was stunned, but delighted by this proclamation! Here was a man who was very old in years, but very young at heart, still possessing such a zest for life that he was willing to give up this extremely precious wine in one fell swoop, while most people cling tightly , jealously guarding their treasures as they age. What a youthful lesson this was for all of us! It reinforced my belief that even the most magnificent wine is nothing if it cannot be enjoyed and shared, that the only things worth collecting and preserving are the memories of those epiphanous experiences where the magic of a Krug, just like the magic of a Yquem, a Pétrus, a Shakespeare, Mozart or Charlie Parker.