From grower champagne to unfortified sherry, resurrected indigenous varieties from Corsica to the Canaries, and the many faces of new school Burgundy, contemporary wine culture has changed, forcefully redefined by irreverent outsiders and trailblazing pioneers. Whilst the preponderance of this change has been a great good—there has surely never been a better time to enjoy fine wine—it has also come with unfortunate consequences. Not least a sweeping disillusionment among popular commentators and metropolitan sommeliers and drinkers for Bordeaux’s great chateaux and Champagne’s grand marques, which have been too readily juxtaposed as anachronistic and stuffy. Today, this unjust caricature does a gross disservice to maison and drinker alike; so much of the most dynamic and progressive contemporary winegrowing is happening at these very estates, not to mention the resultant wines are among the most delicious.
At Krug, chef de cave Julie Cavil and her talented team vividly illustrate these facts, most palpably in Clos du Mesnil, where extraordinary lengths are taken to produce a truly singular wine, and from where Krug disseminates insights to all its holdings.
Since 1698, the 1.84-hectare Clos du Mesnil vineyard, overlooked by the village church, has been enclosed by a stone fence and planted solely with chardonnay. In 1880, when Eugène-Aimé Salon decided he wanted his own champagne, the vineyard was owned by the Tarin family, for whom Salon’s brother-in-law worked as a winemaker. The family agreed to sell the vineyard’s fruit to Eugène-Aimé, and until at least 1976, it was one of twenty plots constituting the Salon blend. In 1971, the Tarin family sold Clos du Mesnil to Rémi and Henri Krug, who were significantly expanding their family’s landholdings. Between 1976 and 1979, the family ceased selling fruit to Salon and bottled the first single-vineyard Krug wine from the clos in 1986. Since then, Clos du Mesnil has become one of the most collectable, revered, and expensive champagnes. And, whilst it’s easy to dismiss this ascension as frenzied speculation, a brief tour behind the scenes reveals a laudable combination of artisan craftsmanship and precision viticulture deployed in service of producing the finest wine possible from this diminutive site.
Despite spanning just 155 metres top to bottom, the northeast-facing Clos exhibits stark differences in aspect, exposure, and shading; planted on a six-degree gradient, the upper portion receives more total sun; the slope steepens in the upper western portion, which receives more morning sun; a small section—planted east to west—tucked behind the press house at the top of the slope, shielded from wind, traps heat throughout the day; and, large trees adjoining the lower east portion of the vineyard shade nearby vines until midday. All these factors result in varied ripeness and fruit composition; thus, the plot is picked tries successive, often demanding 4-6 passes spanning almost two weeks to pick the entire crop. Exactly when each section is picked is determined by taste alone; fresh, citrus aromas are most desirable, with ample plenitude and retaining freshness. Such a profile demands a narrow window for picking, so a dedicated team of local pickers are selected to be on hand at a moment’s notice.
Fruit composition is also impacted by varying soil profiles, which influence how grapevines grow. After observing variations in plant physiology within the Clos, the team excavated small pits in disparate sections of the vineyard. The excavations were revealing, highlighting distinct differences in topsoil depth, which ranges from 20-40cm within the vineyard. Topsoil depth can determine water availability, nutrient access, rooting patterns, and more. Unmitigated, these factors can influence fruit composition, and subsequently wine potential; shallow soils can induce earlier stress, resulting in earlier ripening, smaller berries, higher skin-to-juice ratio, and potentially more intense and structured wines. And vice versa. Understanding the pedological construct of the Clos allows the team to deploy precision viticulture; cover crop—including legumes for fixing nitrogen—is cultivated selectively to balance vigour and combat erosion; soil fertility is carefully managed to buffer against the changing climate—the soils are notably friable; treatments are strictly organic, mostly orientated toward fighting powdery mildew; and canopy management is tailored to segment vigour. The team have also experimented with biodynamics but admits they observed no measurable impact.
These pedological and topographical factors are further complexified by vine age, which predictably ranges dramatically; the eldest surviving vines were planted in 1970, and the most recent in 2016, between that there were plantings in ’93, ‘04, ‘08 and ‘12. Replanting is completed with carefully selected clones selected for modest yields and strong disease resistance—historical vine disease precludes massal selection. This variation is consequential; the eldest vines consistently mature a little faster, and so it’s considered at harvest, too.
Once harvest arrives, fruit is pressed and vinified on site in a dedicated press house complete with a 4000-kilo pneumatic Coquard press. Press cycles last 4-5 hours, and only the first press fraction is used. After pressing, juice is pumped directly from the press across a courtyard to a small room lined with 21hl stainless steel tanks, which matches the 2050 litres allowed from a single press. After 24 hours settling, the must is racked to 205-litre used barrels (generally from Tonnellerie Taransaud and from Seguin Moreau) where it ferments and stays for three months. After this, the wines are racked back to stainless steel tanks, where élevage continues on fine lees. After bottling, the liqueur de tirage is added, and the wine spends 12-14 years on the lees. Both the barrel fermentation and extended lees ageing help flesh out the vineyard’s east-facing fruit, which can have unrelenting acidity.
Like the great Chateau Rayas’ three distinct lieux-dits—which catch the rising, midday, and setting sun—each contribute something unique to the famed finished wine, the Clos du Mesnil too is greater than the sum of its parts, each amplified by a tireless commitment to retaining the singularity of each component section, from chiselled acidity to mid-palate plenitude, tart lemon flavours and floral aromatics. This kaleidoscopic fusion is demonstrable in the most recent release; the 2009 Krug Clos du Mesnil is opulent and lavish, seeping from the glass with aromas of citrus, warm pastry, baked sourdough, and ripe apricots. It’s full-bodied, rich and layered with a tightly wound core of sapid fruit and a long enveloping finish.
And, whilst this cuvee is indisputably expensive, and equally rare, the same unrivalled attention is disseminated from the Clos to recent iterations of Krug’s more affordable Grande Cuvée; since 2009, Krug has ceased applying herbicides in all estate-owned vineyards (certified organic since 2024); workers drive almost 2,500 miles each harvest, visiting sites owned by Krug and its grower partners to taste grapes and decide harvest dates plot by plot; 250 to 300 wines are vinified parcel by parcel—from 4300 barrels to hundreds of stainless steel tanks—preserving the distinct identity of each plot; and a staggering library of 500 wines is maintained, from which 150 wines from 13 vintages complete the 173rd Edition.
Crucially, what a morning spent behind the scenes with Julie Cavil reveals is not only the brilliant singularity of Krug’s Clos du Mesnil, but also the extent of the maison’s progressive and painstaking work from dirt to bottle in all its range, and why this grand marque deserves equal fanfare amongst drinkers young and old as even the most hyped grower or niche winemaker from Sussex to Savoie and beyond.