2000 Krug Vintage Champagne

99 Points, James Halliday – Wine Companion
Composed of 43% Chardonnay, 42% Pinot Noir and 15% Pinot Meunier, the only Grand Marque to use Pinot Meunier in its vintage releases. Glowing, bright green-gold, the palate is an amazingly intense battle for supremacy between the layered richness that is the DNA of all Krugs, with roasted nuts, figs and honey on the one side, glorious grapefruit, Meyer lemon and mineral acidity on the other. Krug is the greatest wine of Champagne.

98 Points, Nick Stock – Age/SMH Good Wine Guide 2013
This is quite an incredible Champagne, with virtually unmatched grace and complexity, a hedonistic treat that will leave you gasping for more at the end of the bottle. The nose has deep autolysis notes, buttered toast and crumpets, dark, yeasty notes and a wealth of melted butter. Notes of dried apple and plenty of spice here, a real essay in deep Pinot Noir. The palate is precise and deeply anchored; it holds the line beautifully, delivering concentrated lemon and grapefruit flavours, assertive, tingly acidity, finely beaded spark and smooth, nutty hazelnut flavours through the finish. A savoury, complex and majestic wine that’s very, very distinctive.

98 Points, Tyson Stelzer – The Champagne Guide 2016–2017
The potential for a Krug vintage wine is only identified after the blend of Grande Cuvée has been secured, and all the reserves earmarked. ‘Our challenge with Grande Cuvée is to make a consistent wine that erases all the character of the vintage,’ Olivier Krug explains. The most extreme and spectacular wines are kept aside as reserve wines; those with the most pronounced character of the vintage become the vintage wine. Krug’s vintage comprises just 4–5% of production, making a statement to reflect the story of the year, rather than a creative expression.

Krug dubs Vintage 2000 gourmandise orageuse — stormy indulgence — after its chaotic season, among its most intense and warmest declared vintages, alongside 1947, 1959, 1976, 1982 and 1989. It carries a gentle and calm demeanour that belies its tumultuous season. In spite of glowing generosity, it’s somehow transfixed in time, held in suspended animation and astonishingly barely evolved from its release four years ago, yet somehow even more expressive. The sheer endurance of even a warm vintage is a marvel, finding a new lease on life in Krug’s capable hands, with remarkable freshness and vitality infused by a taut yet silky line of malic acidity, drawing its multifaceted complexity into tight control.

A glow with yellow summer fruits becoming orange zest, the great intensity of Krug resonates in rumbling depth of butterscotch, honey, molten wax, toast and hints of smouldering hearth. All the silky lusciousness of 2000 is on parade, amidst deep-set mineral expression and silky texture on a finish of sheer concentration and wonderful poise. A brilliant Krug, right at its prime, with no sign of waning anytime soon.