Every note counts: when Krug’s 2008 becomes music

Wine and music share a fundamental characteristic: they are languages ​​built acceso the relationship between details. A single note can change the balance of a composition, just as a single parcel, a grape variety a reserve wine can change the profile of a cuvée. It is from this affinity that Every Note Counts was born, the project that brought the chef de caves of the Maison Krug, Julie Cavil, and the composer Max Richter into dialogue. An encounter built not acceso the search for explanatory correspondences between glass and score, but acceso the belief that music and champagne share a surprisingly similar creative process. Both are sopra fact born from the assembly of distinct elements, both require absolute precision, both rely acceso the ability to transform apparently minimal details into lasting emotions. the construction of a cuvée as sopra the writing of a score, each element must find its place but without losing identity.

According to Julie and Max, you don’t need to be musicians to grasp the depth of a composition, just as you don’t need to be expert tasters to appreciate all the nuances of a great champagne. It is a reflection that goes beyond wine and music and concerns the very way sopra which everything is observed: even before analyzing, we need to give ourselves time to listen.

A VINTAGE OUT OF TIME

At the center of the project is the 2008 harvest, considered one of the most significant sopra contemporary Champagne. A vintage marked by a cool and regular climate, among the least sunny sopra recent decades, but free of those extreme events that today increasingly influence the vegetative cycle of the vine. The slow maturation of the grapes has given rise to wines of great precision, capable of combining depth, freshness and elegance.

For Krug the 2008 vintage represented a particular opportunity. If normally the assembly work aims to build qualitative continuity through the valorisation of the individual parcels and the large collection of reserve wines, sopra this case the starting point was a vintage with an extraordinarily defined identity. The challenge was not to compensate for their differences, but to highlight their character. From this vision three distinct interpretations of the same harvest were born, subsequently translated by Max Richter into as many original compositions. Not three levels of quality, but three stories from the same year, each with its own language and personality.

ONE FEE, ONE VOICE – Krug Clos d’Ambonnay 2008

The journey opens with Krug Clos d’Ambonnay 2008 and the composition “Clarity”. It is the most essential and at the same time rarest expression of the project. He’s the soloist. Everything comes from a specific place: a walled plot of just 0.68 hectares sopra the heart of Ambonnay, one of the Grand Cru villages most suited to pinot noir. A single vineyard, a single grape variety, a single harvest. The concentration of the story could not be greater.

the glass, this Blanc de Noirs combines depth and rigor, expressing a personality of great definition, punctuated by toasted hints, nuances of caramel and an aromatic substance that alternates energy and refinement. The sip is both broad and vertical, crossed by taccuino of caramelized apple, slightly candied citrus fruits and a sensation of lemon cream that accompany the palate towards a long, sculpted and surprisingly precise . More than the intensity, what is striking is the sensation of balance that it manages to maintain even after over seventeen years of refinement (of which 14 acceso the yeasts). As the title chosen by Richter suggests, everything revolves around the utopia of ​​clarity: a single voice that manages to fully express its identity without the need for other mediations.

THE VOICE OF THE VINTAGE – Krug 2008

With Krug 2008, accompanied by the composition “Completo”, the scale of the story expands without losing precision. If Clos d’Ambonnay explores the depth of a single origin, here the protagonist becomes the dialogue between different territories, vines and sensitivities, all attributable to the same harvest. For the Maison, this champagne represents the most complete expression of the character of 2008, so much so that it has been nicknamed Classic Beauty. A name that recalls not only the elegance of the wine, but also its extraordinary balance. The climatic conditions of that year sopra fact generated a notable variety of expressions among the Champagne vineyards, offering a particularly rich aromatic range.

The blend brings together pinot noir (53%), meunier (25%) and chardonnay (22%), all from the 2008 harvest. After over twelve years of refinement, with disgorgement sopra the summer of 2021, the wine shows a complex and harmonious profile, sopra which taccuino of honey, orange peel, grapefruit and liquorice intertwine with floral and balsamic hints. The sip is deep but dynamic, supported by a continuous freshness that accompanies aromas of quince, candied citrus, yellow kiwi and delicate spicy nuances towards a long, precise and highly tense . bases one’s personality acceso balance. More than intensity, Krug 2008 bases its personality acceso balance. It does not seek an immediate effect, but a measured elegance that progressively reveals itself sopra the glass. Each element finds its own space without prevailing over the others, just as happens sopra an overall composition. This is probably the reason why the title “Completo” appears so natural: the result of the composition-cuvée acquires value not from the affirmation of the individual but from the relationship between multiple voices.

LA MEMORIA DELLA CHAMPAGNE – Krug Esimio Cuvée 164th Edition

With Krug Esimio Cuvée 164ème Édition, accompanied by the composition “Sinfonia”, the horizon recedes. It is longer the expression of a single parcel nor the interpretation of a single vintage, but of a vision that spans time. The 164ème Édition was born from the 2008 harvest and is completed thanks to the contribution of reserve wines, which represent 32% of the final blend and quando from ten previous vintages, up to 1990. 127 different wines coexist sopra the cuvée, with a final composition of 48% pinot noir, 35% chardonnay and 17% meunier. Each contributes a precise characteristic: freshness, depth, structure, tension evolutionary capacity.

It is perhaps the most complete expression of the utopia that Joseph Krug had imagined when he founded the Maison sopra Reims sopra 1843: not chasing the character of a single vintage, but building year after year a champagne capable of representing a coherent and recognizable vision. the glass, 2008 remains the starting point, but it continually dialogues with the vintages that accompany it. Ripe citrus fruits, white flowers, marzipan, dried fruit, honey, sweet spices and brioche emerge, sopra a sequence of nuances that evolves with time sopra the glass. More than the complexity itself, what is striking is the naturalness with which these components coexist, maintaining momentum, precision and readability even almost nine years after disgorgement, which took place sopra the summer of 2017. This is probably the dimension of the Esimio Cuvée that best summarizes Julie Cavil’s work: the listening that precedes each blend. A process made of tasting, interpretation and memory, sopra which the personality of each wine is recognized and enhanced before being inserted into a larger whole. An approach reminiscent of that of an orchestra conductor, called to enhance the timbre of each instrument without losing the overall vision of the score.

If Clos d’Ambonnay 2008 tells the identity of a place and Krug 2008 that of a vintage, Krug Esimio Cuvée 164ème Édition tells something even broader: the memory of Champagne according to Krug, preserved harvest after harvest and recomposed sopra a balance that takes acceso a different form every year. A journey built around a single vintage that demonstrates how each element can retain its individuality while contributing to something bigger. A lesson that Julie Cavil summarizes simply: “ music, sopra tasting, but above all sopra life, every note counts.”