Krug Clos du Mesnil 2008

A house built on blending

Johann-Joseph Krug was born in 1800 in Mainz, on the Rhine, the son of a butcher. He dropped the name Johann, reached Paris by 1834, and spent eight years with the Champagne house Jacquesson in Chalons-sur-Marne, where he learned blending. In 1842 he moved to Reims, and in 1843 he founded Krug et Cie.

Krug made its name with blends. Its Grande Cuvee combines more than 120 wines from ten or more vintages and three grape varieties, drawn from a library of about 150 reserve wines. The house owns about 20 hectares of vines in Ambonnay, Ay, Le Mesnil and Trepail and buys the rest from about 250 plots under long-term contract. Its vintage and single-vineyard wines rest at least ten years in the cellars in Reims.

Henri Krug joined the management in 1962 and his brother Remi three years later; Henri became president in 1977. Remy Cointreau sold the house to LVMH in January 1999, and Henri's son Olivier Krug became house director in 2009.

The wall of 1698

In 1971 Remi and Henri Krug bought about six hectares of vines around Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, one of the most famous Chardonnay villages in the Cote des Blancs. On their first visit they found that the purchase included a small walled vineyard in the middle of the village, overlooked by the church, with an inscription: 'In the year 1698, this wall was built by Claude Jannin and Pierre Dehee Metoen and in the same year the vines were planted by Gaspard Jannin, son of Claude.'

Krug first used the plot's Chardonnay to enrich the blend of Grande Cuvee. The house says the wall and the vineyard's place in the center of the village create a microclimate that gives the grapes their own character, and the 1979 harvest was so outstanding that the brothers bottled it alone. Krug Clos du Mesnil 1979, presented in 1986, was the first Champagne the house had ever devoted to a single plot.

Since then Krug has made a Clos du Mesnil only in years it judges worthy. The 2008 is the 20th. A second single-plot wine, Clos d'Ambonnay, comes from a 0.68-hectare walled plot of Pinot Noir.

2008: cool, slow and steady

According to Krug, 2008 was one of Champagne's coolest years in 14 years and one of its least sunny in almost half a century. Rainfall was normal through the season, the summer was dry, and a lull came before harvest. With no heat spikes, the grapes ripened slowly and evenly.

The Clos du Mesnil was picked on September 18, 20 and 21, 2008. Olivier Krug later recalled that picking began 'the same day as the financial crisis,' and that he would never forget the contrast between the beauty of the grapes and the news. (Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy three days earlier, on September 15.) Krug says the grapes had intense freshness and elegant expression, and after tasting it chose to make 13,160 bottles and 500 magnums, the magnums to be released later.

The wine was corked in summer 2021. Krug says each individually numbered bottle spent at least 14 years in its cellars. Olivier Krug debuted it in California in December 2022; a San Francisco merchant who tasted it then found it 'still almost water-clear' after 14 years, with no toasty aromas yet, and predicted tiny allocations.

Among the greatest Clos du Mesnils

Antonio Galloni of Vinous scored the 2008 99, calling it 'a very, very special Champagne' that 'straddles Champagne and a distinctly Burgundian expression of Chardonnay,' and predicted it would take its place among the greatest Clos du Mesnil vintages, 1979, 1988 and 1996. James Suckling also gave 99, describing 'a powerful, sensual and intense Blanc de Blancs' with 'a sharp backbone of acidity,' and noted a dosage of 4 grams per liter.

Falstaff scored it 100. Wine Spectator's Alison Napjus gave 98, calling it 'a harmonious Champagne' with 'a racy streak of acidity.' The Wine Advocate gave 98+. The Swedish Champagne writer Richard Juhlin, who calls Clos du Mesnil his favorite wine, gave it 99 and compared its class to Raveneau Les Clos and the Montrachets of Lafon and the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.

Collectors on one wine forum called it the best Clos du Mesnil since the 1996, and one compared it favorably with the 2006 Clos du Mesnil and the 2008 Krug vintage blend.

Reading the bottle

Every bottle of Krug carries a Krug ID number on the back that can be entered on the house's website for the wine's full story; the 2008 Clos du Mesnil is ID 321045. Bottles are individually numbered. The wine is 100% Chardonnay from the Clos du Mesnil, labeled Brut Blanc de Blancs, at 12.5% alcohol per one auction listing.

Krug describes a light, golden mineral hue, aromas of citrus, light toast, orange madeleine and 'the menthol signature of this small plot,' and a palate of candied citrus and barley sugar with 'a delightful bitterness.' The house recommends serving it between 9 and 12 degrees Celsius.

Krug gives the clos as 1.84 hectares, or 4.5 acres. One wine-investment article gives total Clos du Mesnil production as only about 12,000 bottles per vintage; Krug's own figure for 2008 is 13,160 bottles plus 500 magnums.

Allocation and resale

Krug says it prices its wines by rarity, not quality; there is 'no hierarchy at Krug,' as its staff put it. The 2008 Clos du Mesnil was tightly allocated from release.

In 2026 a US retailer listed a bottle at $2,495. On September 18, 2026, a single 750 ml bottle in its gift box sold at an online auction in the United States for $1,820 after 52 bids from 12 bidders.

The numbers

Vineyard

1.84 ha (4.5 acres), walled since 1698

2008 production

13,160 bottles and 500 magnums

Harvest dates

September 18, 20 and 21, 2008

Falstaff

100

James Suckling

99

Vinous (Antonio Galloni)

99

Richard Juhlin

99

Wine Advocate

98+

Wine Spectator (Alison Napjus)

98

Timeline

1. 1698

   Claude Jannin and Pierre Dehee Metoen build the wall of the Clos du Mesnil; Gaspard Jannin plants the vines.

2. 1800

   Johann-Joseph Krug is born in Mainz.

3. 1843

   Joseph Krug founds Krug et Cie in Reims.

4. 1971

   Remi and Henri Krug buy about six hectares around Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, including the walled clos.

5. 1979

   An outstanding harvest leads Krug to bottle the Clos du Mesnil on its own for the first time.

6. 1986

   Krug Clos du Mesnil 1979 is presented, Krug's first single-plot Champagne.

7. Jan 1999

   Remy Cointreau sells Krug to LVMH.

8. Sep 18, 2008

   Picking of the Clos du Mesnil begins, continuing September 20 and 21.

9. 2009

   Olivier Krug becomes house director.

10. 2021

    The 2008 Clos du Mesnil receives its cork in summer 2021.

11. Dec 2022

    Olivier Krug debuts the 2008 Clos du Mesnil in California.

12. Sep 18, 2026

    A single bottle in gift box sells at an online auction in the United States for $1,820.

The world in 2008

• Feb 17, 2008

  Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.

• Jul 10, 2008

  Apple launches the App Store with 500 apps.

• Aug 8, 2008

  The Summer Olympics open in Beijing.

• Sep 10, 2008

  The first proton beam circulates in CERN's Large Hadron Collider near Geneva.

• Sep 15, 2008

  Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy and stocks fall sharply.

• Oct 3, 2008

  President George W. Bush signs the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

• Nov 4, 2008

  Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States.

• Nov 26, 2008

  Coordinated terrorist attacks begin in Mumbai, killing 166 people over four days.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Krug Clos du Mesnil 2008 is number 34 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (19 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Krug brothers did not know the walled clos was part of their 1971 purchase until they visited it.
• The wall's 1698 inscription names the men who built it and the son who planted the vines the same year.
• Clos du Mesnil was first meant only to add Chardonnay to the Grande Cuvee blend.
• Krug's founder was a butcher's son from Mainz who learned Champagne as an accountant at another house.
• Krug says it prices its wines by rarity, not by quality.
• Krug's sister single-plot wine, Clos d'Ambonnay, comes from a walled plot of just 0.68 hectares.
• Every Krug bottle has an ID on the back that unlocks its full story on the house's website.