Krug Grande Cuvée is an excellent champagne, and several airlines serve it in international first class. It’s a blend of wines from 10 or more vintages and from a combination of pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier. And it’s cellared for at least six years. You’ll often pay $160 or more in a bottle shop.
One of the more impressive moments in international first class is the start of any Singapore Airlines flight when you’re offered champagne. It goes something like this,
Flight attendant: Would you care for some champagne, sir?
You: Why yes please.
Flight attendant, with a smirk: Would you prefer Dom Perignon or Krug?
You: Well that depends, what year is the Dom?
The answer to this question may not matter, I know plenty of people who will prefer Krug regardless of the vintage of Dom Perignon being offered. I find Dom to be extremely variable from year to year. But Krug does have a certain consistency, and no airline offers vintage Dom from a specific year. They offer the Krug Grande Cuvée.
Or do they?
Via Zac George Singapore is introducing Krug 2004 “on all First Class and Suites flights where both” Dom Perignon and Krug are normally served.
The 2004 vintage of Krug will retail for about $300+, or double the price of Krug Grande Cuvée. (I have found it online as low as $275 plus shipping per bottle, however.)
Credit: Krug
This may be a little over the top, British singer Lianne La Havas offering a music selection “to express the emotion she felt when tasting Krug 2004.”
I haven’t tasted the 2004. However I would expect that it is simply too young to enjoy. It’s going to be tight, and I imagine it would go flat by the time it opened up in the glass. I’ve read some reviewers who believe it will ultimately be an excellent vintage, albeit not of the quality of the 2002.
Of course Singapore Airlines cannot just acquire 2002 Krug in sufficient quantities to provision first class for any period of time. It’s always easier to obtain the current release of any wine. I just wish they’d cellar it for a time before serving.
Not flying Singapore Airlines first class any time soon? You can spend SkyMiles for Krug Grande Cuvée.
Courtesy of Zac George??? He just copies everyone else with nothing unique himself. FRAUD.
Loving SQ for this.
Gary, this has been available on board for a few weeks now, and 2004 is an incredible wine and definitely not too early to drink. Krug (even though owned by powerhouse Moet-Hennessy) is a much more of a boutique producer than Moet/Dom etc, and they would never compromise quality to release a wine too early. Other well known houses have had 2006/2007/2009 on the market now for quite some time.
This is especially amazing as 2004 is a much more limited run than 2002, per your article.
Looking forward to my flights from LHR to SYD tomorrow in SQ F, bring it!!
Maybe it’s because I spent my childhood summers in north-western Italy and, alternately, on a family ranch in the US — but the American businessman fascination with Champagne is a mystery to me. For Italians, Champagne is a useless drink that is way too dry to pair well with any good food. On a ranch in America, Brut Champagne is too sweet and exclusively a drink for women and men who’ve had a tragic, octave-changing accident with a saddle horn. I can enjoy one glass of good champagne but that’s about it. And there are so many amazing wines in the world I’d rather have. I’d be much more excited if Singapore offered a good French Saucisson. It’s something you can’t buy legally in the US at any price (the domestic made versions are revolting and taste like dog food). Most of the expensive French products are either hype or literally counterfeit. Few French people get overly excited about them. Americans should question their slavish lapdog reaction to European product marketing. I realize we’ll always be country-bumpkin yank-stooges on some level but it’s still embarrassing.
what is the cheapest you can buy the miles for trying out SQ First with Krug 2004? Do they offer it on SIN-BKK? SIN-HKG? Can I book SQ first with non-SQ miles? Not based in US, so cant churn CCs.
I thought “vintage” champagne was somewhat of a bastardization of the original concept of champagne anyway
The Yank stooges pretend they know what they are talking about wine.
ToI much fake BS.
2004 was a weak vintage for Krug. There was a very large harvest with weak and generally ‘green’ grapes being taken. It is almost but not quite as bad as 2003 and completely unrecognizable compared to 2002 which sails close to 96. 2004 is not undrinkable but is genuinely uncollectable.