With its rather lean profile, Krug’s 2008 Brut is one of those wines that, to my palate, would be almost unrecognizable in a blind tasting—particularly given that it originates from a vintage evidently more favorable for Champenois viticulture than this release might suggest. Disgorged in 2021 with a dosage of 3.5 grams per liter, the wine opens in the glass with aromas evocative of lemon oil, freshly baked bread and quince mingled with golden apple, faint hints of honeysuckle and nuts. On the palate, it is medium-bodied and defined by a taut architecture and incisive acids that one might wish were more seamlessly cloaked within its core of fruit; yet the fruit informing the wine appears to have been harvested a little on the early side if one’s preferences incline toward the aromatic plenitude and texture that only full maturity can impart. As such, this vintage does not quite possess the textural properties and balance of Krug’s most compelling releases