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Krug announces ‘exceptional’ tasting experience
More details have emerged of the “exceptional” Krug tasting experience that will be auctioned in New York this September.
Olivier Krug, photo credit: Colin Hampden-White
With an opening bid of US$15,000, the experience will allow four people to visit Krug’s cellars in Reims, the house’s vineyards and enjoy a “unique” tasting with Olivier Krug, Serena Sutcliffe MW and two members of the Krug tasting committee.
The main focus of the trip will be a tasting of the famous 1915 vintage, only four bottles of which remain in the house’s cellars.
The trip will also include a tasting of five vintages of Clos du Mesnil in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and a dinner at three Michelin-starred restaurant L’Assiette Champenoise specially prepared by head chef Arnaud Lallement.
The 1915 vintage is renowned for a number of reasons, not only was it a good vintage but it was harvested and made with a fraction of the resources usually available to the house because of the First World War.
Meanwhile, the house’s cellars, along with the rest of Reims, was little more than a kilometer from the front and the city suffered over 1,000 days of heavy bombardment during the war – with the cathedral reduced to a mere shell as a result.
From 1914 to 1918 the house was run by Jeanne Krug, whose husband Joseph Krug II spent the war languishing in a German prisoner of war camp. Not only did Jeanne oversee the running of the house’s viticultural affairs during the war but also did her bit to help the war effort, working with the Red Cross to treat wounded soldiers and displaced civilians.
She kept her husband appraised of each vintage during his captivity, writing of the 1915: “The harvest is well under way and the beautiful weather helps and gives us hope to make a good wine in better conditions.”
Meanwhile, in his replies he recommended blends to the chef de caves.
Olivier Krug, Jeanne and Joseph’s great grandson, commented: “In our own small way, we make history by preserving it, and so I am proud and delighted to pass on this treasured piece of Krug’s past. One hundred years on, during two days, history will be alive, in the place where all started but now with much more joy.”