Krug will launch its first ever blancs de noirs, Clos d’Ambonnay - also its first new Champagne since introducing Krug Rosé in 1983.
Next April, Krug will release 3,000 bottles of 1995 Clos d’Ambonnay, made entirely of Pinot Noir harvested from a tiny (0.625 hectare) walled vineyard.
While press reports have indicated a price tag of US$3,000 (£1,451.50) a bottle, Krug’s UK spokesperson Patricia Parnell declined to speculate on the cost.
Krug’s other single estate Champagne – Clos de Mesnil – is made only in exceptional vintages, and the plan is to do the same with Clos d’Ambonnay.
Parnell told decanter.com that the company had bought the Clos d’Ambonnay vineyard in 1984, and has been adding the wine from vintages prior to the 1995 into its Grande Cuvée – as it does with unbottled Clos de Mesnil.
‘This may be their best-kept secret,’ she said.
‘You could say there’s a drop of Clos de Mesnil and Clos d’Ambonnay in every bottle of Grande Cuvée.’
The wine is fermented in small casks at the vineyard itself, and then transferred to Reims where it is bottled the spring following the vintage, and then aged. Bottles will be packaged individually for sale.
Written by Maggie Rosen
