Blending Old And New

At a contemporary facility in the heart of Champagne, Krug uses time-tested methods and updated technology to create its signature bubbly.

- Jeff Jenssen and Mike DeSimone

SINCE JOSEPH KRUG started his eponymous champagne house in 1843, the maison had been making its annual Grande Cuvée release in the region's largest city, Reims. Last year, the company moved to a more modern facility in the village of Ambonnay. The cutting-edge winery-named Joseph, after its founder-is more than 93sqm in size but was designed to fit in with the tiny commune's traditional architecture. (Home to fewer than 1,000 people, it boasts a church that dates to the 11th century.) But Krug's new space also abuts one of the world's finest vineyards, Clos Ambonnay, which is significant. Cellar master Julie Cavil tells Robb Report that, in addition to being the source of Krug's exquisite single-vineyard bottling of the same name, “there is a drop of Ambonnay in each edition of Krug Grande Cuvée”.

This wine, one of six prestige cuvees Krug produces, is a masterclass in crafting champagne-and the new building's soaring wood ceilings and colossal plate-glass windows provide an apt setting for its development. Using an age-old method, Krug sources grapes from 120 plots across the region to create each year's edition, blending their juices with wines from up to 10 vintages. And technological advancements at the state-of-the-art edifice allow Cavil and her team to track each plot from vineyard to bottle. There's even a specially designed app called Black Book that has replaced the paper ledgers Krug used for more than 150 years.