20 years ago this week, Laura and I were married in Baltimore, Maryland. Several years after that I threw our checkbook to the wind & took up wine as a hobby. One of the first books that I ever bought was Wine for Dummies, and it contained a telling line: "We feel sorry for those that have never tasted Krug. We feel worse for those who have."
A line like that was akin to catnip, and so one day Laura and I were shopping & came across some Krug. We bought some, loved it, and a bit of an obsession with Champagne and Krug was born. Not much later the 1989 vintage of Krug was released, and despite what was then (and still now) a hefty price tag, we purchased one bottle for the expressed purpose of drinking it for our 20th wedding anniversary. Wednesday was the day, but as it was a weekday/work night we decided to postpone the Krug until the weekend.
Tonight we purchased some lobsters and some fresh butter & sugar corn (the same meal we had for our 10th anniversary), and opened the 1989 Krug. So often a wine disappoints when placed on a stage, but for some reason Krug never does that for us. 1989 was not the best vintage for Champagne, yet the Krug still displays notable fruit, along with a biscuity richness that acted like butter for the lobster and corn. An initial simplicity gave way to wheat toast, hay, baked apple and a real buttery creaminess that lasted long after each sip was swallowed.
There's no more 1989 Krug in our cellar, but other things await us in the coming years.
