ALTER EGO
2017 du Château Palmer Margaux
53% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot. Good clean approach - firmish, not plump nor rich. Good mineral energy and bright thread of zippy acidity adds real freshness. Almost subdued in its gentle feel - but nicely balanced with the just ripe, silky fruit. Fresh feel rides high - nicely done. Rating: 91 - 92 L&S (Apr 2018)
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The 2017 Alter Ego is pliant, textured and supple. Expressive floral notes add inner perfume and freshness to a core of dark red berry fruit, mocha, new leather, spice and menthol. A wine of striking textural richness, Alter Ago also remains light on its feet and wonderfully nuanced. The 13% alcohol, low by present-day standards, adds to a feeling of freshness. Drinking range: 2022 - 2032 Rating: 92 Antonio Galloni, The Wine Advocate (Mar 2020)
The 2017 Alter Ego De Palmer is a terrific wine and checks in as 53% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 6% Petit Verdot. Its deep purple color is followed by a powerful second wine that has lots of blackberry and assorted dark fruit as well as notes of leafy herbs, earth, and spice. it's nicely concentrated, medium to full-bodied, and has considerable class. Drinking range: 2020 - 2035 Rating: 92 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Feb 2020)
The 2017 Alter Ego is matured in 25% new oak. It has quite a rich, dark chocolate-tinged bouquet that is driven by the Merlot, almost Right Bank in style. It just lacks the same detail and clarity as the Grand Vin. The palate is medium-bodied with light tannin, nicely balanced, certainly one of the more approachable Alter Ego in recent years with a touch of spice and clove towards the finish. Drinking range: 2021 - 2035 Rating: 89-91 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2018)
53% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot. Inky black colour. Delicate and super-pure dark fruit, Dark and savoury on the palate, rich and deep in savoury black fruit. Very smooth but with attractive density, smooth and dark and very long. Elegant and flowing across the palate. Drinking range: 2025 - 2035 Rating: 17 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2018)
A blend of 53% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Petit Verdot, the 2017 Alter Ego de Palmer is very deep purple-black in color and gives up exuberant crushed red currants, red cherries, black plums and mulberries with touches of forest floor, garrigue and lavender plus a waft of dark chocolate. The palate is medium-bodied with a good core of plummy fruit and very soft, plush tannins, sparked by just enough freshness, finishing fruity. Rating: 90-92 Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.com (Apr 2018)
The blends for the grand vin and second wine are similar this year. This is carefully presented, accomplished and precise, with fresh mint and peony notes on the nose followed by bright and vibrant black fruit flavours. It's extremely pretty, with some lovely floral notes. The yield was 38hl/ha as they lost a few plots to frost over to the west of the appellation. 13.5% press wine. 45% of overall production, representing 9,000 cases. IPT 66. Drinking range: 2024 - 2038 Rating: 91 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2018)
This shows excellent body and depth of fruit. Rich and very deep. Layered and flavorful. Solid and chewy. Serious second wine. Rating: 92-93 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2018)
Lively, featuring lots of lavender and savory hints mixed with black cherry and plum flavors. Shows a light bramble note. Open-knit, with juicy energy on the finish. Rating: 89-92 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2018)
The frost hit the second-wine parcels at Palmer, which lie in the western part of the vineyard, harder than the grand vin parcels, with 15 hectares suffering some damage. Thomas Duroux went all-out to get some second-generation fruit from the frosted vines, but even in this benevolent growing season he was still waiting for satisfactory ripeness when the botrytis appeared in the vineyard. As a consequence this is all from first-generation fruit. The blend is 55% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Petit Verdot, the alcohol 13.1% and the IPT 66. After the discard of the second-generation fruit, 45% of what remained went into this cuvée. This feels dark and more toasted, with less fragrant fruit than I expect from Palmer, but with a slowly unfurling dark-plum character. The palate is very convincing though, fresh, polished, tense, lightly creamed, with firm grip and substance. I find lots of ripe, substantial tannins here. A very dark style here, ripe with black olive and black bean complexities, structured, with a flourish of peppery tannins, yet overall the whole thing is relaxed, gentle, supple and composed. An impressive breadth, and a very good second wine. Rating: 91-93 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2018)
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.