I don't mind! The Grande Cuvee (the 'standard' Krug, I guess, but that's a very odd term for Krug of course) is indeed more regular than vintage Champagnes because of its mix. The Clos du Mesnil is indeed wonderful, but to me it is completely different in taste and style from the Grande Cuvee and also varies by vintage. Both Clos du Mesnil and Cristal are not normally produced in poor years, but IMHO, Cristal paradoxically gets better with good aging. Its development is a bit similar to my beloved Comtes de Champagne: recent vintages extremely pure, but I've recently opened a 1996 C de C and it was absolutely fantastic. Toasty, complex, yet just as exceptionally elegant as the younger siblings. Amazing.

You're right that Clos du Mesnil is typically above F budgets, in fact, Cristal tends to be too. But then JL bless them still give us Salon and that is crazy by airlines F budgets. And yes, gorgeous barely start to describe it. I know many people think it is snobbery, it isn't - Salon is just exceptional. The first time I tasted it was at a time I would say I was certainly no big fan of Champagne and I was blown away. The only other 'first taste' of a wine that gave me a similar (in fact, admittedly, even bigger) emotion was the first time I tried Petrus, and I did not even know that it was Petrus when I was first served the glass! Pure bliss.