Krug 2002 comes from a vintage where ‘everything went right’ and will likely be consistently good for the next three decades, says Champagne expert and author Michael Edwards after a first taste.

January has got off to a cracking start with the news that the long-awaited Krug 2002 vintage Champagne is about to be unwrapped – in a matter of weeks.

• READ: Krug 2002 review – see Michael Edwards’ tasting note and score

Our lucky party invited to a sneak preview trekked through the drizzle to Studio One in the Hackney Road, East London. As we gathered, chef de caves Eric Lebel told me of Krug’s intricate parcel-by-parcel approach, as strong now as for Joseph Krug in 1843.

Last autumn, as an illustration, the team made 26 wines of Villers-Marmery their favourite Montagne Chardonnay and 30 of Ambonnay Pinot Noir as a first pre-selection for a dream 2015 harvest- echoes of 2002.

Yet of equal fascination was Eric’s account of problematic 2003 in the Saharan heat of the earliest August harvest since 1822, when grapes burnt on the vine.

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