Restaurant: House of Krug
Location: You wish you knew
Date: October 21, 2019
Cuisine: Modern
Rating: Great food, great champagnes
Sage Society organizes some of the best wine maker dinners around and they’ve done quite a number with everyone’s favorite Champagne house…
Krug! This one, organized as usual by Liz Lee, featured a rare appearance by Krug family scion Olivier Krug.
They really know how to do up a place.
Krug greats you as you enter (and everywhere).
The main room of the rented “House of Krug”.
Even the closets have been Krug-a-fied.
We start out with:
NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 167eme. JG 96. The new release of Krug Grande Cuvée “167eme Édition” is stellar. The wine is from the base year of 2011 and utterly transcends that vintage, but, of course, it includes nearly two hundred different wines in the blend, with the oldest reserves dating all the way back to the 1995 vintage. Fully forty-two percent of the cuvée this year is made up of reserve wines. The cépages for the 167eme Édition is forty-seven percent pinot noir, thirty-six percent chardonnay and seventeen percent pinot meunier. The wine shows its lovely preponderance of pinot noir on the nose, wafting from the glass in a beautifully complex blend of apple, white peach, a touch of patissière, very complex soil tones, caraway seed and a gently floral contribution in the upper register from the pinot meunier in the blend. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, complex and nicely broad-shouldered, with great depth at the core, refined mousse, bright, seamless acids and outstanding focus and grip on the very long, complex and beautifully balanced finish. This is simply outstanding and should age effortlessly for fifty to seventy-five years! (Drink between 2019-2090)
Scallop and caviar.
Caviar. The good stuff!
I can’t remember but they were really good.
“Chicken” liver truffles. Delicious.
The crowd gathers to begin the learning part of the evening.
The amazing Liz Lee starts off and introduces…
Olivier Krug!
Then we move into a side room to do a side by side tasting.
There is a place for everyone with their own Krug comparison placemats.
2006 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. 94 points. Seems to live in a league of its own. This is way too young and I’m sure we baby killed, but it was fun to get to try. So complex. Some annise, some coriander, some more herbal notes. It’s got a lot less toast than I usually associate with the house. Served in a burg glass which worked well for it. Very nice wine.
NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 162eme. 95 points. This is Jungian archetypal Krug. Rich and concentrated, with a balance of oxidative nutty tones and plenty of bright acidity-driven freshness. It’s really a complete package. These older GCs are really some of the best champagnes out there (I’m thinking of an older 2005 disgorgement that I drank recently, too).
Our special mats.
The kitchen.
And the dinner table.
Crowd gathering to sit.
The menu.
Nice place settings.
Caviar, crab gelee, braised onion, yuzu, parsley. This dish was light and airy as a fluffy cloud to “support” the caviar.
Housemade linguine, celeriac puree, leeks, lemon, truffle. Very light lemon truffle pasta. Quite lovely.
NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé Edition 23eme. VM 94. The NV Rosé 23ème Edition is wonderfully nuanced and layered, with lovely richness to play off a core of bright red berry fruit. Although not especially complex in this release, the Rosé offers lovely immediacy and tons of pure pleasure. Crushed berries, chalk, mint and white flowers are nicely softened in this super-expressive, beautifully persistent Rosé. A few more years in bottle will only help. The 23ème is a Champagne of pure and total pleasure. This release is based on 2011, with reserve wines back to 2000. (Drink between 2021-2041)
Grilled duck breast, foie emulsion, pomme mousseline, truffle. A nice rare piece of duck and perfect with the incomparable Krug rose.
Brie d’affinois, tomme brulee, leonora, Parmesan Reggiano.
Mignardises. I particularly liked the white iced (almond?) cake.
The chef (right with the hat) and one of the Krug organizers.
Overall, another amazing evening. Krug really does an incredible job setting the scene and this was a unique evening. Food was very good but not quite the number of courses that Foodie Club beast Erick and I are used to — we like at least 10-15 — so we had to go out with some new friends to Korea Town for “second dinner.” Really, any excuse for second dinner is a good excuse!
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