N.V. Krug Brut, Champagne, France 1.5L

Super texture, like velvet, offers the perfect backdrop for a kaleidoscope of flavors-coconut, ginger, vanilla, berries and tobacco. Beautifully integrated, with a firm underpinning of acidity keeping it all focussed and fresh. Terrific length.

"Deep, complex aromas of pear, nectar, toffee, marzipan and toasted nuts; very subtle but marked notes of yeast autolysis. Great vinosity and grip in the mouth; very intensely flavored but also large-scaled and thick. More wine than Champagne. Very slow-building, very long aftertaste. A superb bottle of this consistently outstanding bubbly."

Henri Krug blends Grande Cuvee with the resonance of symphonic music as a goal, using more than fifty blending elements to build harmonies and contrasts into the amplitude of the wine. Emperior Joseph II might have complained of too many notes as the wine deepens intoits oak-fermented reserves then brightens into more etherial refinements. The texture is supple, the flavorslayered in a minor chord as aromatics waltz into the ether.