🍾 Krug Grande Cuvée 166ème Édition

Krug Grande Cuvée 166ème Édition is a non-vintage white Champagne from the house Krug in Reims.

According to the house, this Édition of Krug Grande Cuvée was composed around the 2010 harvest: a blend of 140 wines from 13 different years, the youngest from 2010 and the oldest from 1998; reserve wines make up 42 % of the blend. The house renews Grande Cuvée every year as a new numbered Édition.

The house Krug is based in Reims; it was founded in 1843 by Joseph Krug.

The boundaries of the Champagne area were set by a law of 6 May 1919: parts of the Marne, Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne departments. The designation’s specification allows seven grape varieties, dominated by Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; grapes are picked as whole bunches, that is by hand, and the yield is limited to 10,400 kg per hectare.

According to the Comité Champagne, Champagne is served chilled to 8–10 °C, and bottles are kept in the dark at a steady 10–15 °C, without vibration. An opened bottle is best closed with a sparkling-wine stopper and kept cold.

It is sold under the protected designation of origin Champagne: the bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle, and the wine is aged for at least 15 months before sale (36 for vintage). Check the label for the sugar term (brut, extra brut and so on): the house does not state it on the wine's page.

Why it matters to you. No year on the label means it is not a vintage wine: the house may blend wines from different harvests. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.