No one in the Hamptons needs an excuse to drink champagne, especially now at the peak of the summer season. But I did have a very good reason to drink champagne throughout the evening Sunday night, with every course of a lavish dinner: Krug. It was at a dinner organized by the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, an international gastronomic society, where I was a guest of one of its members, Nick Lobaccaro.
We began in the garden of c/o The Maidstone on East Hampton’s Main Street with hors d’oeuvres accompanied by a lively, rich and intricate Krug Grand Cuvée MV, and then sat down to an appetizer of Oysters with mignonette and cavier, and Krug Clos du Mesnil 1998. We moved on to Krug Vintage 1998, Krug Rosé and another Grand Cuvée with various courses—all superbly prepared by chef James Carpenter.
Krug is based in Reims, close to the other major champagne producers, and is one of the most acclaimed brands in the world, considered by some to be the greatest champagne. (I have too many friends in the champagne world to pick a favorite.) Krug is known for its blending skills—or “assemblage,” which may involve 50 wines from their reserves. The idea is that the whole surpasses the sum of its parts. Grapes are sourced from growers with small plots, and individually fermented in small oak casks. It’s a painstaking and secretive process but the results are sensuous, elegant and multidimensional. Clos du Mesnil differs somewhat in pedigree, with all grapes coming from a single, historic “jewel vineyard.”
Members of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs—they use the term confrères—are serious about their wine and food and a pretty happy group of bon viveurs to hang out with. I believe this was their first event in the Hamptons, and I hope they and the people from Krug will return—and invite me.