2000 CHÂTEAU PALMER 3ème Cru Classé Margaux, Lea & Sandeman

CHÂTEAU PALMER

2000 3ème Cru Classé Margaux

Grapes Merlot, Cab Franc, Cab Sauv
Colour Red
Origin France, Bordeaux
Sub-district Haut Médoc
Village Margaux
Classification 3ème Cru Classé
ABV 13.5%

Breathe deep to enjoy the curl of violet and woodsmoke aromatics that are coming out of this glass. Softened russet pink around the edges at 21 years old, still deep ruby through the core. The fruits are a little more tertiary than I expected, brambled raspberry, with hawthorn, tobacco, white pepper, truffle and campfire notes, but as it opens up, the palate expands outwards and builds in concentration and grip. No question this once-stubborn vintage is now open for business, and overall this is soft and welcoming but has decades ahead of it. Harvest September 21 to October 7. 60% new oak. Drinking range: 2021 - 2038 Rating: 95 Jane Anson, Decanter (Dec 2021)


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The 2000 Palmer is a very different “beast” than the 2001, and I use that word intentionally. This is much more feral on the nose, and quite ferrous, presenting leather and dried herbs, smudged red berry fruit, and a hint of fig that emerges with time. The brettanomyces sticks out a bit here. The palate is medium-bodied with dry tannins and good density, very earthy in style and certainly more evolved than the succeeding vintage, yet you cannot help falling for its charms. It evolves wonderfully in the glass, actually closing in a little toward the finish, and suggesting that contrary to what the nose suggests, it will repay further cellaring. Excellent. Drinking range: 2022 - 2050 Rating: 94 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Sept 2021)

Tasted at the Château Palmer vertical in London, the 2000 Château Palmer was closed for a number of years, but it appears to be finally opening. Deep in colour, there remains a slight broodiness on the nose, although it loses its inhibitions and develops potent blackberry, strawberry and mint aromas, perhaps just a smudge of camphor. It is unashamedly rich on the entry: intense and vibrant with layers of black cherry and cassis fruit pierced by a fine line of acidity. This millennial tightens everything up towards the, finish whereupon it reverts to something much more classic in style, long and tensile. It does not quite occupy the same class as the 2005 or the imperial 2010, but it certainly has long-term potential. My advice? Give it another 4-5 years in the cellar. Tasted May 2015. Rating: 94 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2016)

Still tight, with a core of black currant, blackberry and plum fruit flavors that is quite youthful, while hints of dried anise, tobacco and singed alder are starting to peek through on the finish. There's a really vibrant iron note cutting through the finish too. Hold off for now.--Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective. Drinking range: 2018 - 2028 Rating: 96 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Dec 2015)

Château Palmer

Margaux Troisième cru 1855 What is now Château Palmer was originally part of a larger Château d'Issan but was divided among heirs and came into the ownership of the Gascq family in 1748. The widow of the last of the Gascqs, in 1814, and apparently having met him on a stagecoach, sold the estate to an Englishman, General Charles Palmer, and Château de Gascq became Château Palmer. He extended the estate and built quite a reputation for his wines (especially in London) but financial difficulties forced him to sell up in 1843 and, by the time of the 1855 classification, the reputation of Château Palmer had slipped sufficiently to rate "only" 3rd Growth status - a status it has exceded for most of its subsequent history. The present château was built at the end of the 1850's. In 1938 the Société Civile de Château Palmer was formed to take ownership of the estate, with the Sichel and Mähler-Besse families as leading shareholders, a situation which persists to this day. Château Palmer sits between Margaux and Cantenac, just east of Issan. The 55ha of vines are planted to 47% each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with the balance being Petit Verdot. The Grand Vin spends 21 months in wood (45% new). The second wine is Alter Ego de Château Palmer. In the best years of General Palmer's reign, the wines of Château Palmer were regarded on a par with those of Château Margaux and, indeed, during the worst years of the 1960's Palmer probably had a better reputation. Today, despite huge improvements by its neighbours, Palmer sits very squarely as the leading Margaux estate that isn't actually Château Margaux.

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