The Fifth Date of Christmas: Five (million) Golden Bubbles

On the Fifth Date of Christmas, my true love brought to me…not five golden rings, but a bottle of five million (give or take) golden bubbles–Champagne Krug Grande Cuvee.  Krug is better than bling, at least to me. It’s a special-occasion wine.  Or, it is the occasion. It’s sommelier catnip–we can’t resist it, we want to bathe in it, and we’d drink it anyway rather than drain the tub afterwards.

What makes it so special? For one, Krug barrel ages some of the base wines in the blend (a real rarity in the Champagne region), which gives the wine a signature brioche-y richness. Krug also holds back reserve wines for years to enhance its cuvee or final blend–something all Champagne houses do, but not to the extent of Krug, a bottle of which includes reserve wines that may be decades old. The resulting complexity of the wine is legendary, and quite bewitching.

So the bottle alone is major date material with no other enhancements. But, we have lots to celebrate this holiday season, and this Fifth Date of Christmas: family arriving from out of town, and a new huge screen with 3-D (remember, this date of course includes my husband John). So there will be the perfect hedonistic pairings for Krug: Ewephoria aged sheeps milk Gouda cheese, and truffled popcorn. (With the fruit in the wine, that’s all the food groups, right? C’mon work with me, it’s the holidays!)

In this video, visit Krug with me for a Master Class tasting with Maggie Henriquez, the Prez of Krug herself.

And whether it’s bling or bubbles you prefer, here’s hoping your Fifth Date of Christmas shines, too!