WHAT I’VE LEARNED | Olivier Krug
For over 150 years, Krug had been making its Champagnes on the site of its family maison in the centre of Reims. Now it has opened a new winery – christened Joseph, after the brand’s founder – at its Clos d’Ambonnay vineyard. After paying a visit, we sat down with sixth-generation family member Olivier Krug to talk ancestry, climate change and The Stone Roses…
‘In the 1820s, Joseph Krug went to London with Adolphe Jacquesson, for whom he was working, and stayed at a hotel in Berkeley Square. While they were there, they met the two daughters of the owner, and ended up marrying them. So Joseph Krug became Adolphe Jacquesson’s brother-in-law, and we have British ancestry, in the form of my great great great grandmother.’
‘Jacquesson was a very big house at the time, and Joseph was co-managing the business. We have letters from the Jacquesson family referring to him as part of the family – it is obvious how much they loved him. But he fell out with them over his dream of creating a singular wine – the very best Champagne he could offer, every single year, regardless of variations in climate [this is today’s Krug Grand Cuvée, the 172nd edition of which will be released in August]. They said, “Don’t waste your time, the climate is too unpredictable.” Even his wife thought he was mad – we have a letter she wrote to him, saying, “You never had any ambition before, why start now?” He was 42, with a young son. Normally at this stage of life, you don’t take too many risks, but he was convinced he could do it.’
‘We knew we had to change the winery – we’d been talking about it for a number of years. We’d been using the same facility since 1870, and everything happened there – the winemaking, the barrel ageing, the disgorgement, the bottle ageing, the labelling… When Julie Cavil [Krug’s chef de cave] joined in 2006, she was very clear from the beginning that we could separate the winemaking from the rest – we had some space in Ambonnay, so boom, it was done.’
‘The new winery won’t change the way we make the Champagne, but it improves everyone’s morale. Laurent Halbin, Julie’s no2, told me, “Every morning I do the team briefing and I look out on Clos d’Ambonnay.” He almost had tears in his eyes.’
‘We’re a small house – we make 0.2% of all the Champagne that is produced. Our sales at the end of the 19thcentury were bigger than they are today. Yes, we’re part of LVMH, but Krug is about the maison, not brands or factories. We have a specific audience that is different to the other [LVMH] houses, and the Arnault family [owners of LVMH] want us to showcase Krug’s craftsmanship and heritage. LVMH helps us but no-one is telling Julie what to do – I’d love to see the result if they tried. So we told them it was time to move from the old winery, out of the city of Reims – and they approved the plan very quickly. In fact, the most common answer I get from LVMH is “Yes, but are you sure that’s enough?”‘
‘The Krug audience have an emotional belonging to the house that is very strong. Serena Sutcliffe MW coined the term ‘Krugiste’ 30 years ago, though we have since banned the phrase. It sounded too much like a fanatical cult, and we didn’t want Krug to be thought of as a private club. But I do believe there is no other maison that has quite this sort of “love”.’
‘From an emotional perspective, it is very important to me that one of my children continues my work here, to maintain the family connection. I have four children. My eldest son is a winemaker in Burgundy, but he has many other projects through his own consultancy and wants to create his own domaine. My daughter is working for Krug in Australia so we’ll see. I think LVMH understands the importance of having a family member at a high level, acting as a custodian. I see LVMH as a family company too – it may seem to some people like a faceless corporation with the curtains closed, but that’s not how I see it.’
‘I do worry about climate change – but more as an inhabitant of the planet than anything else. Yes, it’s very challenging in Champagne, but I think we are prepared, because we know each plot and grower. But take 2011 – was this a difficult year, or was it down to climate change? When you have summer in April and May, it looks like climate change. We had warm years in the past – 1976, for example – but not like that. And now we’ve had it in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015…’
‘I love music – I was a big fan of the British punk and indie movements of the ‘70s and ‘80s – The Clash, Buzzcocks, then The Smiths, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses. I remember in the ‘90s, Krug held a black-tie dinner in Manchester’s Midland Hotel. I sat with Sir Alex Ferguson, who told me how Eric Cantona had introduced him to Krug. Then I was introduced to [record label owner] Tony Wilson, and he said, “Do you want to see the real Manchester?” I said yes, took off my black tie, and he took me to the Haçienda nightclub. It was a great night.’
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TWO
MINUTES
WITH
Guillaume d’Angerville