Champagne Krug Grande Cuvée 169ème Brut NV (Magnum 1.5L)

Some Champagnes celebrate a single great year. Krug does something rarer. The 169ème Édition is a blend of 146 wines from 11 different years, the youngest from 2013 and the oldest reaching all the way back to 2000 – a living library of vintages composed around the acclaimed 2013 harvest. Reserve wines make up 40% of the blend, and it rested about six years on the lees before disgorgement, with a final composition of 43% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and 22% Meunier. Poured from magnum – the format collectors prize for its slower, more graceful aging – this is some of the most generous Krug you’ll find anywhere, anytime. In the glass, it opens with lemon oil and warm brioche, giving way to dried apricot, toasted almond and a whiff of orange marmalade. The palate is precise and energetic, a bright line of citrus and orchard fruit riding over chalky minerality, before a long, faintly saline finish that keeps calling you back. It drinks beautifully now and, by most accounts, has a long life still ahead of it. We have exactly six magnums – no more coming. At $549 against a $860 retail, it's truly a rare chance to bring home one of the most epic Champagnes in its most celebratory size. When these six are gone, they're gone, so act quickly!