“Sod the wine, I want to suck on the writing. This man White is an instinctive writer, bloody rare to find one who actually pulls it off, as in still gets a meaning across with concision. Sharp arbitrage of speed and risk, closest thing I can think of to Cicero’s ‘motus continuum animi.’

Probably takes a drink or two to connect like that: he literally paints his senses on the page.”


DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little, Ludmila’s Broken English, Lights Out In Wonderland ... Winner: Booker prize; Whitbread prize; Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman prize; James Joyce Award from the Literary & Historical Society of University College Dublin)


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28 August 2017

HARVEST STARTS EARLY AT KRUG

Is this the world's best Chardonnay? Olivier Krug has sent these images of the start of harvest at the Clos du Mesnil. 

 The good folk of Champagne sure understand the idea of the walled township. The people of Mesnil erected their fortification around the cutest little Chardonnay vineyard, then built their village around the outside of it.






To minimise the possibility of any damage to the fruit, there's a dedicated press house in the corner of the clos, so the grapes travel no more than a hundred metres. The must is then carried to the winery in Reims.

When my dear mate Francois Henri was chairman of the company in the 'eighties, he wanted to bring the Krug delivery truck to Adelaide to take it for a fang around the Formula One circuit, which followed city streets. In those days, however, the race sponsorshop was all sewn up by Louis Vuitton Möet Hennessey, who supplied the magnum of Möet for the winner to squirt. Möet was owner of Dom Perignon, the arch rival of Krug, and wouldn't abide the notion of being upstaged, so the truck stayed home. 

Krug has since become the jewel in the crown of LVMH, so it's a pity we can't wind back the clock and get that old Roller smokin!

"Harvest started this Friday morning for the ripest part of Clos du Mesnil," Olivier reported on the weekend. "So far, promising ... This unusual decision not to wait for the official opening harvest dates was taken under the principles of individuality set by Joseph Krug. After several tastings (always blind) of all our plots. A part of Clos du Mesnil was identified as ready. The decision was easy to take."

Monica Jansons, now at Wirra Wirra, tasting with Olivier's father, the master blender Henri Krug. It was always an astonishing thing to stand at that humble bench, and witness the magic that the gentle Henri (since deceased) could conjure when composing the non-vintage Krug Grande Cuvée.

The fabulous Chardonnay of  Clos du Mesnil, however, is kept discrete for its own vintage bottling. This is one thing you can do with it:


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