In our opinion the House of Krug produces the very finest Champagne. It has finesse and elegance, while being full and round, clean and dry. The Krug brothers, Henri and Remi, believe fervently in blending. For example, the Grande Cuvée can be made from seven to ten different vintages and up to twenty five separate vineyards, producing a complex and mature Champagne.
Some years ago we Remi and Henri thought about the possibility of allowing a small proportion of the '81 vintage to benefit from an extended period of time on the'lees'. They agreed that this should add an extra dimension to the wines and the result is the vintage that is now offered.
To understand the affect that 'extended lees' contact has on Champagne one must appreciate the method of production. To simplify - Champagne is a wine which goes through a secondary fermentation in the bottle to produce the sparkle. It may be made from the classic grape varieties of the area, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and at Krug a high proportion of Pinot Meunier is also used. The wines are fermented and aged at Krug in small oak barrels, probably the only Grand Marque still using this traditional method. Racking then takes place, the wines being transferred from barrel to barrel, leaving the unwanted deposits behind each time.
When the time for bottling comes a blend is made. This is the most skilful part of the Champagne producer's art. For the vintage Cuvée an assemblage would be made of wines from the same year but from many vineyard parcels.
The wine is bottled with the addition of fresh yeast and a little dissolved sugar. The bottles are then well shaken to amalgamate the addition and left to mature in the cool, dark, limestone cellars deep below Reims, disturbed only occasionally by a vigorous shake to redistribute the sticky sediment which may cling to the bottle. After approximately 3 months the process of remuage begins. The bottles are placed into the
pupitre, a hinged pair of boards containing 60 holes. To begin with the bottles are placed virtually horizontally, but after a few months of daily turning and tipping (the remuage) the Champagne is standing vertically in the pupitre with the yeasty sediments fully settled into the neck.
It is at this point that many of the cheaper Champagnes on the market are disgorged, a process by which the yeasty sediments are expelled from the bottle. Once the sediment is packed into the neck it is frozen and then expelled. The bottle is topped up and this process of dosage presents a further opportunity to adjust the finished wine.
However, quality conscious Champagne Houses store their cuvees sur pointe, as it is called, to extract maximum flavour and complexity from these yeasts. Vintage Krug is normally stored for six years sur pointe before degorgement. But the Reserve Krug from the '81 vintage has only recently been disgorged, benefiting from an even more extended period on the sediment and resulting in a Champagne of even greater depth and complexity. Few would disagree that Krug is the finest Champagne produced.
The Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, was one of the first devotees of Bollinger's dry champagne. During the Second World War, the direction of the firm passed at a very difficult time to Madame Jacques Bollinger, on the death of her husband, grandson of the founders. Haunted by her childlessness, 'Tante Lily', as she was known to the family, devoted herself unsparingly to the firm's progress and over the next forty years doubled sales to one million bottles.
During this period, she also aquired prime vineyards in the best sites of the Moiitagiie de Reims, bringing Bollinger's holdings to their current extent of 143 hectares. These vineyards, nearly half of which are rated Grands Crus, supply 70% of the firm's needs, allowing Bollinger to ensure an enviable continuity of style. That style - masculine, mouthfilling and rich - owes a lot to the dominance of Pinot Noir in the champagne grape blend.
But the defining touch at Bollinger is that 80% of the harvest (and all of the must used to make the vintage wines) is fermented in wooden casks, making the finished champagne deep and complex in flavour and one that lives a distinguished longer life. For many years, Bollinger has hardly liqueured its wines, the average dosage being half to three-quarters of one per cent. The non-vintage Special Cuvee is the one champagne in the Bollinger range to be part-fermented in stainless steel, but it is still a full, meaty and minerally mouthful with a mature flavour and good bottle age. This wine is currently made from 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Pinot Meunier and 15% Chardonnay.
Standing above the Grand Annee is the so-called R.D., a wine unique to Bollinger. The term R.D., patented by the House in 1961, means "recently disgorged". This rare champagne, only released in exceptional years, is disgorged off its lees after a minimum of seven years. The longer spell on the tees makes the wine softer and more mellow but also fresher: mature champagne, yet young and vigorous. The 1982 R.D. is still a big framed teenager; the 1979 a delightful, elegant young adult; the 1975 perfectly formed, at the peak of its powers.
The Vieilles Vignes Francaises is the rarest Bollinger champagne of all. Made entirely from ungrafted, pre-phylloxera Pinot Noir vines in three small lots - the Chaud Terre and Clos St Jacques, both in Ay, and the Croix Rotige, in Bouzy - this is an extraordinary wine of unforgetable vinosity and depth of character. The power of its flavour is shaped by the traditional practice of growing these old vines close to the ground, the warmth of the soil giving extra sugar and extract to the grapes.
(c) Trevor Hughes 1996
Many different brands and vintages of both Krug and Bollinger are stocked by T&W Wines, the specialist Wine Merchants, 51 King Street, Thetford, Norfolk. IP24 2AU. Tel: 01842 765646 Fax: 0182 766407
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