Krug - Brut Champagne Vintage 2004 (750ml)
This bottle spent at least 13 years in Krug’s cellars receiving its cork in spring 2016. Composed of a selection of the year’s most characterful wines Krug 2004 is the expression of the year 2004 revealed by Krug. The year 2004 called for patience with a crisp winter and chill spring keeping temperatures in Champagne cool for an exceptionally long time. May brought a gentle warmth to the region and in late summer the grapes ripened perfectly in the radiant sunshine. The beautiful weather in harvest time from mid-September to early October made 2004 a generous year following the challenging extremes and limited yields of 2003. Nature’s elation afforded a breadth of choice in 2004 offering more characterful yet mature grapes than any previous harvest. The wines of the year were at once highly expressive bright and undeniably elegant. The vivacity tension and citrus notes of the Meuniers and the shining Chardonnays combined with the backbone of Pinot Noir gave rise to a very balanced year. Combining generosity and precision elegance and character Krug 2004 tells the vibrant story of a fresh year. -Eric Lebel Chef de Cave krug Tasting Notes from Krug: At first sight the beautiful light golden colour promises radiant freshness. The nose begins with an expressive bouquet of ginger candied citrus and quince followed by richer notes evoking lemon meringue tart plum and mirabelle. On the palate a very balanced Champagne with light notes of brioche and honey giving way to an array of fresh citrus including oranges lemons and mandarins enhanced by a very elegant finish."
Vinous: 98 Points
The 2004 Vintage is a gorgeous Champagne that is just beginning to enter its first plateau of maturity. Dried flowers brioche mint marzipan tangerine peel and spice lend notable nuance throughout. A hint of reduction adds intrigue. As always the 2004 is a linear focused Champagne endowed with terrific energy. It is impeccably done. There's a bit more Chardonnay and Meunier than usual in this vintage and that very much comes through in the wine's personality and overall feel. The blend is 37% Pinot Noir 39% Chardonnay and 24% Meunier as opposed to the more classic 50%/35%/15% blend. Disgorged: Summer 2018. Krug ID: 318031. - By Antonio Galloni on March 2024 This recent tasting with Olivier Krug provided a terrific opportunity to run through several Champagnes including the new 2011 Vintage and a handful of prior releases. All things considered the 2011 is a very good Champagne in a challenging year in which many tête de cuvées were not released.
Vinous Media: 98 Points
The 2004 Vintage is a gorgeous Champagne that is just beginning to enter its first plateau of maturity. Dried flowers, brioche, mint, marzipan, tangerine peel and spice lend notable nuance throughout. A hint of reduction adds intrigue. As always, the 2004 is a linear, focused Champagne endowed with terrific energy. It is impeccably done. There's a bit more Chardonnay and Meunier than usual in this vintage, and that very much comes through in the wine's personality and overall feel. The blend is 37% Pinot Noir, 39% Chardonnay and 24% Meunier as opposed to the more classic 50%/35%/15% blend. Disgorged: Summer 2018. Krug ID: 318031.
James Suckling: 97 Points
ID: 214041 This is an extremely fresh edition and remains in a restrained mode with an intense serve of chardonnay's lemon citrus dominating the nose alongside lime zest bright florals grassy elements fresh dough white stones and very subtle background spice. The palate has a svelte and elegant shape. Smoother than the 2002 it shares the same quality of precision but not the raging power of that vintage. The poise is unquestionable the wine very reserved with plenty of lemon-infused citrus flavors hints of fresh cashew and a lot of potential. Acidity holds superbly the dosage is exactly where it should be. This is a classic release. It's all about chardonnay. Best from 2022 and will mature gracefully in linear style in bottle for several decades.
Wine Advocate: 97 Points
Combining subtleness with complexity the coolish Krug 2004 Brut opens with a highly elegant fascinatingly clear bright and refreshing bouquet of ripe (apple) fruits. Dense and round with a delicate mineral soul the pure but perfectly balanced 2004 reveals great finesse and weightless elegance with a long and round finish. This is a gorgeous Krug vintage that is 14 years old but still on the rise. Tasted from ID 316034 in New York in November 2018. At the beginning of November 2018 I met Olivier Krug early on a Friday morning (even before breakfast) in New York's beautiful Simon & The Whale hotel. If you get the chance to have some Krug cuvées you will not miss your breakfast too I suppose. Olivier insisted on naming the 166th edition of the Krug Grande Cuvée as "166ème Édition" and not as "Number 166" or just "Krug 166." Olivier said that "the cuvée represents the history of Krug and is the result of blending potentially 250 base wines from a time span of 20 or 25 years." He also doesn't like to speak of the 2004 as a vintage Champagne or of the two Clos as single-vineyard wines. "Single-vineyard wines are not our objective nor are vintage Champagnes" he explains. "We produce Krug and only the repeated blind tastings of all our 250 or so base wines by five to seven tasters decides which cuvées we are going to produce. If the vintage doesn't reflect the soul of the vintage we will not produce it. If we don't detect the extraordinary quality and singularity of the one or the other Clos we will not produce it. The two Clos exist because of Krug. There wouldn't be any Clos without Krug" Olivier added underlining that there is no hierarchy in the Krug offerings. The tastings of the 2004 vins clairs however crystallized the 2004 Brut because it represents the "luminous freshness" of the vintage as Olivier describes it. Our morning tasting started with the still very young and uneasy or somewhat restless Krug Grande Cuvée 166ème Édition which was followed by the 2004 Krug. In turn the 20014 Krug was followed by the outstanding Grande Cuvée 160ème Édition which is predominantly based on the 2004 harvest and shows the complexity of the cuvée combined with the purity and freshness of the 2004 vintage. Krug fans should download the Krug App as it includes detailed information about the cuvée the vintage and the blending partners that can be found by entering the ID code. The first three digits of the ID code represent the date of disgorgement so that ID316 translates to the third quarter of 2016. Krug'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... However starting the tasting with Krug's single-vineyard cuvées from the glorious 2002 vintage is not the worst entry into a tasting day. Krug'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. More 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. Published: Nov 30 2018
John Gilman: 97 Points
The new release of 2004 Krug is absolutely beautiful and is already quite elegant and open on both the nose and palate and is drinking with great finesse. I had expected this wine to be a bit more steely in structure out of the blocks but the refinement of the blend this year has produced a wine that is already a joy to drink at age thirteen though it will continue age gracefully for many many decades to come. The cépages in 2004 is thirty-nine percent chardonnay thirty-seven percent pinot noir and twenty-four percent pinot meunier with the wine having been disgorged in the winter of 2016. The bouquet jumps from the glass in a refined mix of apple a touch of walnut warm bread lavender a superb base of soil tones and a topnote of smokiness. On the palate the wine is deep full-bodied and utterly seamless with vibrant acids great focus and grip a lovely core refined mousse and a very long complex racy and energetic finish. There is marvelous precision here on both the nose and palate not to mention a sense of harmony and grace that is fairly rare in the 2004 vintage. Chapeau! 2017-2060. 97.
Decanter: 96 Points
2004 was a late harvest year, and this vintage Krug, composed of 39% Chardonnay, 37% Pinot Noir and 24% Pinot Meunier, possesses an impressive aromatic richness of hazelnuts, white fruit and spring flowers. There's both density and freshness on the palate, and an engaging counterpoint between vinosity and tension achieves a compelling, harmonious balance. Worthy of an audacious match with sea urchins! (Drink between 2018-2030)
