Krug - Clos du Mesnil Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne 2008 (Pre-arrival) (750ml)
Price: $2195.00
| Producer | Krug |
| Country | France |
| Region | Champagne |
| Varietal | Chardonnay |
| Vintage | 2008 |
| Sku | 4997 |
| Size | 750ml |
Vinous: 99 Points
A harmonious Champagne that marries the power and grace of a prima ballerina. Delivers a racy streak of acidity that's effortlessly knit to the layered range of tangerine madeleine cake dried mint and white blossoms pink grapefruit sorbet and crushed hazelnut and almond notes. Finely detailed in texture -- almost luxuriously creamy -- echoing a pronounced note of salty minerality on the finish. Disgorged summer 2021. Drink now through 2038.
James Suckling: 99 Points
This is a powerful, sensual and intense Blanc de Blancs with lots of chalk, lemon, apricot stone, walnut, flint, biscuit, toast, white grapefruit and quince. Vibrant. tight and structured. Tight bubbles and a sharp backbone of acidity. Very long and persistent. Keeps going. Still a baby. Dosage 4g/L. Drink or hold.
John Gilman: 99 Points
The 2008 vintage of Clos du Mesnil is slated to be released in September of this year. I was fortunate to have a chance to preview the wine during Krug’s Cellar Master, Julie Cavil’s recent visit to New York. As readers may recall, 2008 was a very classically-styled vintage, which Julie terms the “last traditional growing season we have had in Champagne,” with the grapes for the Clos du Mesnil having been harvested between September 19th and 21st of this year. The wine was aged for more than a dozen years sur latte and is truly stunning, offering up a precise, chiseled bouquet of pear, apple, a touch of passion fruit, salty limestone minerality, pastry tones, dried flowers and a topnote of lemon zest. On the palate the wine is deep, pure, full-bodied and laser-like in its precision, with a beautiful core of fruit, great mineral drive and cut, utterly refined mousse and a very, very long, seamlessly balanced and hauntingly complex finish. This wine may close down again once it has a chance to settle in from travel, but for the moment, it is beautifully balanced that it is quite accessible in its youthful guise. This will be a legendary vintage of Clos du Mesnil in the years to come and should prove to be almost timeless and probably will merit a perfect score when it reaches its pinnacle of maturity a decade or two down the road! (Drink between 2022-2085)
Vinous Media: 99 Points
A harmonious Champagne that marries the power and grace of a prima ballerina. Delivers a racy streak of acidity that's effortlessly knit to the layered range of tangerine, madeleine cake, dried mint and white blossoms, pink grapefruit sorbet and crushed hazelnut and almond notes. Finely detailed in texture -- almost luxuriously creamy -- echoing a pronounced note of salty minerality on the finish. Disgorged summer 2021. Drink now through 2038.
Wine Spectator: 98 Points
A harmonious Champagne that marries the power and grace of a prima ballerina. Delivers a racy streak of acidity that's effortlessly knit to the layered range of tangerine madeleine cake dried mint and white blossoms pink grapefruit sorbet and crushed hazelnut and almond notes. Finely detailed in texture -- almost luxuriously creamy -- echoing a pronounced note of salty minerality on the finish. Disgorged summer 2021. Drink now through 2038.
Wine Advocate: 98+ Points
Disgorged a year ago Krug's 2008 Blanc de Blancs Clos du Mesnil unwinds in the glass with notes of citrus oil nougat honeycomb white flowers and a discreet hint of buttered toast and hazelnuts. Full-bodied layered and chiseled it's a taut concentrated wine with a tightly wound core that's underpinned by a racy spine of acidity complemented by a pretty pinpoint mousse and concluding with a long chalky finish. Austerity without asperity is how I'd characterize this wine; and interestingly though Krug likens their monovarietal single-vineyard cuvées to soloists vis-à-vis the orchestra of Grande Cuvée in 2008 it's the Clos du Mesnil-sur-Oger?the soloist?that has produced the house's most complete wine. Given its structure and tension it goes without saying that this will richly reward bottle age. Chef de Caves Julie Cavil and I sat down to taste the newly released 2008 Clos du Mesnil?alongside the 2008 vintage and 2008-base Grande Cuvée 164ème Édition?at the house's cellars in Reims last week. At the same time Krug's 2021-base Grande Cuvée the future 177ème Édition was in tirage a reminder of how slowly time passes in Champagne. And meanwhile work is well underway in the house's new state-of-the-art winery in Ambonnay which is rapidly taking shape.
