Krug: 2006 In Three Acts

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | SEPTEMBER 25, 2020 

Clos du Mesnil is one of the most revered sites in Champagne. Rémi and Henri Krug bought the 1.84-hectare vineyard in 1971 with the goal of securing a high-quality fruit source. But once they started working with the fruit, they realized they had something special. The first Clos du Mesnil, the 1979, remains epic to this day. Although not be design, Clos du Mesnil is also the archetype for what many grower Champagnes would later become – single vineyard, single variety, single vintage wines. I recently had the chance to taste the 2006 Clos du Mesnil, the latest release, with Olivier Krug over Zoom, which is how everything seems to happen these days.

Krug presented three wines in what they call their “Soloist to Orchestra” tasting; the 2006 Clos du Mesnil, Vintage and 2006-based Grande Cuvée. All the wines reflect the warm, radiant weather that is the single most distinctive attribute of the vintage. I have to admit, this presentation made me chuckle, as it was not too long ago that Krug adamantly refused to provide the market and consumers with any detail whatsoever about their Grande Cuvée. “The market can’t handle that,” I was told steadfastly in the old Krug tasting room in Reims. “If Grand Cuvée releases were differentiated you could do all sorts of things, like market mixed 6-packs,” I replied. I did not review the Grande Cuvée for a number of years because there was no way for consumers to know if they were buying the exact same wine I had reviewed. Then Krug came up with thematic names for each vintage (for the 2006-based Grand Cuvée it was ‘Capricious Indulgence’) and the Krug ID back label, which gives consumers a great deal of information, before settling on the current ‘Édition’ system, a masterstroke of marketing because it distinguishes each release and also highlights Krug’s remarkable history, something very few houses can match. Brilliant. 

But lets get back to the wines. The 2006 growing season was marked by unstable weather and some hail early on. Flowering began in mid-June, which is typical. July saw three weeks of uninterrupted elevated temperatures that marked the wines to a significant degree. Intense heat was followed by heavy rain episodes in which two months’ worth of rain fell in just over two weeks. Dry winds from the north and east at the end of the summer and helped restore balance in the vineyards. Harvest began in mid-September, pretty typical by today’s standards.