1990 Krug

Blend: (40% PN, 23% PM, 37% CH)

Glass: Spiegelau Adina Red Wine

Finally I can actually write a tasting note where I wasn’t a Friday night zombie after a weeks tango with the financial markets. No – I had a super week in Sweden, where I attended an absolutely brilliant course in Personal Leadership.

I believe very much we are moving targets and a good wine experience feeds out of many variables and me feeling stressed down and reborn is one of those variable. This needs serious addressing and in this case we are talking Champagne – 1990 Krug it was.

Krug is something I rarely drink at home – in fact this is the first time I have a Krug Vintage outside a tasting with the wine club.

But let us not waste more time and open the bottle.

Okay, so I have been mumbling about how much I adore Champagnes with soil-driven appeal and this Champagne is in fact NOT at all about that. If you had to say it a bit square you could say it’s not a terroir Champagne but more about wine making. But let me just reveal to you, that I simply had to throw in the towel here - forget my criteria’s for a while and surrender myself. The nose unfolds one layer after another with; honey, sourdough, brioche, smoke, vanilla (oak perfumes), marzipan, coffee beans, exotic evening perfume, flowers and mild fragments of citrus fruits, providing the salt on the egg appeal. The fruit core feels oily like a Montrachet and so unbelievable deep. You can raise the Champagne to 15 degrees with no problem what so ever – in fact it’s at this temperature it shines the most and reveals its true greatness.

The taste is, how odd it may sound, almost even better with an overwhelming concentration and majestic allure with an aftertaste, which never seems to end. The last thing you notice is firm and vibrant acidity running down the middle of the wine.

This bottle blew my mind and I think it has reached perfect maturity. Sure it can provide excellent drinking for 5-10 years, but why wait?