1988 Krug (Special Price, Gift Boxes)

Very shrunken cork that was easy to extract with only a mild sigh. Very deep gold. Not much nose. Rich palate entry, almost a champagne sorbet! Dry finish. Meaty and it really builds towards the bone dry finish. Rather recalls a really serious mature Corton Charlemagne - Coche? Demanding. The usual intellectual exercise! (JR)

Disgorged autumn 2005. First release. 50% Pinot Noir, 32% Chardonnay, 18% Pinot Meunier from 21 villages. 1988 alternated perfectly between heat and rain (until harvest which took place between 26 September and 6 October), a year without excesses that created the conditions for a slow maturation keeping a very high level of freshness. This wine, always seen as very backward, had not yet been released in the Krug Collection series. Tasted blind. Deep tawny gold. Less concentrated on the nose than most. Medium weight with creamy mushroom-soup notes. A lovely, deep-flavoured wine. Not that young but with great intensity. Umami? Neat and clean. (JR)

Opening out on the nose now – no longer the austere, slightly green aromas it once had. Something between blossom and mushrooms. Very Chardonnay. Rapier-like, marked acidity and very crystalline. Very persistent. RK cited the examples of the 1981 and 1982 vintages and 1961 and 1962 as being other examples of sequential and very different vintages like 1988 and 1989. Delayed 3 years release ~ '69 . No longer available as this wine is now being aged for release as part of the Krug Collection. (JR)