造访顶级香槟的故乡

Class in a Glass The House of Krug Maintains High Standards for Its Premier Champagne Just outside the northern French city of Reims, there is a tiny ploe of land that is a world unto itself.

Just four and a half acres, this garden that dates back to 1698 is known as the House of Krug's " jewel vineyard." Clos du Mesnil is entirely owned by the champagne house,

and it seems within this encloseds space nature works in perfect harmony to create the ideal conditions to cultivate the Chardonnay grape. Olivier Krug is the sixth generation in a family of champagne makers.

For him, this secret garden, as he calls it, represents his family's independent spirit. What is interesting with this vineyard is that for years it used to be the sleeping beauty until my grandfather, my father, my uncle decided to make it the Krug.

So they decided to upgrade the. . . Yeah, he discovered it, and decided to use it. Exactly. For Krug.

He decided to upgrade the quality of the vines, to ferment everything in casks the Krug way, to wait more time, to reject, to taste all the casks one by one and reject eventually some of the casks, and they made this fantastic wine which is one of the rarest champagnes you can find.

One third of the grapes used to make Krug is owned and grown by the House of Krug, like Clos du Mesnil. The rest is taken from a consortium of growers in the area with small plots, who have been supplying the Krug family for years with the best of their grapes.

What is interesting about the House of Krug is the balance between simplicity and back-to-basics attitude with the high-end product. There is no grand chateau, no marble staircase. It's known as a working house where there is simply stone, bricks and oak.

Back at Clos du Mesnil, we have lunch with Krug's young executive team, whose aim is to bring the House of Krug forward into the future. While some champagne houses see their image associated with pop culture, Krug's team isn't exactly jumping at the chance for their products to appear in a hip-hop video.

Still, with a focus on lifestyle products, and the complete Krug package, these young execs say they want to maintain the Old World simplicity with new generation appeal.