How can one bottle of champagne have so much going on inside it? Not only does this have the toasty brioche richness that one expects from Grande Cuvée upfront, it also has spectacular citrus refreshment on the back end, and a layered, chalky, expansive finish that mesmerized me. The fact that this wine took 26 years to create does something to explain it- the bottle contains wines from 1998 to 2016! Krug Grande Cuvée is and expensive wine no doubt, but I believe it to be the best value of the true icons- so much of the ageing has been done for you in Reims, yet there is still so much potential for more cellaring... But now that the wine is almost sold out, it is showing so well that I'll have to bury it in my cellar to keep my hands off of it!

Krug never disappoints you, and this Cuvee is another proof to it. Powerful in acidity and well structured Champagne, it has beautiful richness of lemon curd on the mid palate with lovely layers of fresh citrus and touch of brioche along with strong minerality. It will age great but it's incredibly delicious to drink now as well!

Krug "Grande Cuvee" in almost any edition is a wine so electrifyingly good and kaleidoscopically complex that it's almost difficult to review. The 172Eme, based on the 2016 vintage rather than the warmer, more opulent 2015 base of the previous edition, includes a whopping 42% reserve wines from as far back as 1998. The result is simultaneously tightly wound and incredibly expansive, with a sphere of toasty brioche, roasted nuts, frangipane, and ground nutmeg barely containing the wine's reverberating core of lemon drizzle and green apple. The crackling acidity cracks through, carrying the flavors through a long, fractal-like finish. I find few wines in these upper cost echelons to be worth the money, but Krug, and especially the Krug 172Eme, is one of the very few worth saving up for. The wine just doesn't let up, and it certainly never disappoints.