{"product_id":"krug-vintage-1988-copy","title":"2004 Krug Blanc de Blancs Clos du Mesnil","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"mnmd-review__top\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mnmd-review__product media\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"tasting-notes-text\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mnmd-review__top\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mnmd-review__product media\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"tasting-notes-text\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mnmd-review__top\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mnmd-review__product media\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"tasting-notes-text\"\u003eThe Wine Advocate\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eRP \u003c\/span\u003e98+\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mnmd-review__summary\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"row\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"col-12 col-sm-4\"\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eReviewed by:\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.robertparker.com\/author\/ovcJyC3wJ4oNPTtNA\"\u003eStephan Reinhardt\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"col-12 col-sm-4\"\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eRelease Price:\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eNA\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"col-12 col-sm-4\"\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eDrink Date:\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e2018 - 2050\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKrug's beautifully citrus colored 2002 Blanc de Blancs Clos du Mesnil (ID 415068 - disgorged IV\/2015) shows a deep, complex, very clear and precise if not ethereal bouquet with citrus aromas intertwined with chalk and noble brioche notes in the background. Pure, profound and vibrantly fresh on the palate, this is a straight, athletic, very intense and expressive yet highly elegant and finessed Clos du Mesnil with a unique fresh fruit character! The 2002 reveals a great mineral structure and chalky texture on the palate. The highly complex, energetic finish reveals bracing freshness and vitality as well as the charm and creaminess from the vinification in barrels and possibly the dosage wine that seems to boost the Krug style. While terroir wine is the result of hands-off winemaking, Krug's Clos du Mesnil is perhaps a very particular Krug Champagne—it has great quality, style and complexity that is the result of the winemaking and the addition of the dosage wine. How the Clos du Mesnil would taste if farmed biodynamically, picked later and dosed with nothing but itself is a pointless question, but it hasn't left my mind since I tasted the paradoxical 2002, which is terribly fresh on one hand and also has this unique Krug reserve style. Nota bene: This doesn't include the hypothesis that the wine could be any better. It would just be different and surely less \"Krug,\" which is not what we really want, do we? Tasted April 2018.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"sc-goWbiv loNZbm\"\u003eKrug's Olivier Krug and I didn't get together during my first four years at The Wine Advocate—we were both traveling a lot, and our paths didn't cross for years. They still didn't cross in April this year, but thanks to president Magareth Henriquez, I was welcomed by PR Manager Romain Cappelaere and the charming Julie Murez who guided me through the impressive cellars before she handed me over not to the expected cellar master Eric Lebel (who had to cancel at the last minute) but his young and jocular oenology department manager Julie Cavil, with whom I tasted the cuvées. Julie has been with Krug since 2006 and is Lebel's righthand man. After the welcome aperitif in the family house (the 162nd edition of Krug's Grande Cuvée), I tasted in this order: 2002 Clos du Mesnil, 2002 Clos d'Ambonnay, 2002 and 2004 Vintage Brut and the 158th edition of the Grande Cuvée, which is also based on the great 2002 vintage though it tries to overcome the vintage style. As readers know, Krug's utterly generous, golden-yellow colored Grande Cuvée, a composition of 120 to 200+ base wines, three grape varieties and 15 to 20+ vintages, is the first prestige cuvée re-created each year yet without letting the vintage play the first fiddle. Without guidance, I probably would have tasted the wines the other way around to end up with the very particular single-vintage, single-vineyard, single-variety \"Anti-Krugs.\" Yet this is not the Krug philosophy. The Grande Cuvée is by far the most important wine of the house and the prestigious quintessence of the house style that is always more important than anything else, perhaps more important than even vintage, even single vineyard... The generous, complex, mature but fresh and certainly highly finessed and elegant Krug style is achieved by many steps, for example: a wide range of vineyards in top locations; an early harvest; the individual vinification of each pressing; alcoholic (and malolactic) fermentation and aging until February in old small oak barrels; the reserve wine library with 150 individual wines from about 15 different vintages; the long lees aging of five to eight years... \u003cbr\u003eHowever, starting the tasting with Krug's single-vineyard cuvées from the glorious 2002 vintage is not the worst entry into a tasting day. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKrug's Grande Cuvée was released the first time in 1843, and starting with the 158th Edition, it displays the edition number on the front label, which helps to speak not just about a famous brand and great Champagne but also about a specific edition. That's why we have just started to give each edition its own entry in our database, because it previously was impossible to know which edition the reviewer was talking about. \u003cbr\u003eMore transparency is also given by the ID code, a six-digit number located on the upper left hand side of the back label, whose first three digits indicate the period of disgorgement (for example 108 means: first quarter 2008). On Krug's website, consumers can now get insight into some technical data of each cuvée, which had been a secret for so many years. The ID code can also be used as a reference to collect bottles and enjoy them whenever it seems to be appropriate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished: \u003c\/b\u003eJun 30, 2018\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"virtualcellardoor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53672008286501,"sku":null,"price":312000.0,"currency_code":"JPY","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0245\/9081\/1170\/files\/xtWMPmF6RtKFoWz3kpxz4Q_pb_x600_fbbdda55-cf41-407b-9a40-341cfea5ad07.png?v=1787724980","url":"https:\/\/virtualcellardoor.myshopify.com\/products\/krug-vintage-1988-copy","provider":"virtualcellardoor","version":"1.0","type":"link"}