Krug Vintage Brut 2008 (Gift Box) (JS100)

Country:             France
Region:               Champagne Rating:                JS100, WS99, WE97, RP94
Grape Variety:  53% Pinot Noir, 22% Chardonnay 25%Pinot Meunier
Type of Wine:   Champagne
Bottle Size:        750ml

James Suckling 100
Exceptional freshness with aromas of flinty white stones, flowers, almonds and lemons. There’s hazelnut and strawberry here, too. Complex. The palate has a long, powerful and smooth-honed feel with very assertive citrus flavors, driven by long acidity. A perfect 2008.

Wine Spectator 99 - #99 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2021
There’s a supernova of sensation with each sip of this powerful version, starting with the vivid streak of mouthwatering acidity that drives a rich panoply of ripe black currant, mandarin orange peel and grilled nut flavors, accented by hints of candied ginger, briny oyster shell, verbena and ground cardamom. This burns bright from start to finish, yet its fine integration and lovely, raw silk–like mousse pull it all together into a seamless, vibrant package. Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. Disgorged autumn 2019. Drink now through 2038.

Wine Enthusiast 97
A vintage Champagne from this producer is rare. But 2008 was a great year in Champagne and that shows in this intense, still amazingly young wine. Freshness works with the richness to give concentration, density and the sure-fire possibility of long-term aging. So drink now, but the Champagne will last for many years.

By Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 94
Krug's 2008 Brut is slated to be released at the end of 2021, but any readers who purchase the wine will need to exercise considerably more patience if they are to enjoy it in its prime, as it is very tightly wound out of the gates. Unwinding in the glass with a youthfully discreet bouquet of clear honey, dried fruit, walnut oil, Meyer lemon and rock salt, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and incisive, with a racy spine of acidity, a pretty pinpoint mousse and a penetrating, saline finish. The polar stylistic opposite of the rich, demonstrative 2006, the 2008 is a rather understated, taut vintage from Krug that isn't as liberally endowed with the house's characteristic toasty patina as its immediate predecessor.