2014 CHÂTEAU PALMER 3ème Cru Classé Margaux, Lea & Sandeman

CHÂTEAU PALMER

2017 3ème Cru Classé Margaux

Grapes Cab Sauv, Merlot, Petit Verdot
Colour Red
Origin France, Bordeaux
Sub-district Haut Médoc
Village Margaux
Classification 3ème Cru Classé
ABV 14%

54% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot. Darker nose than the Alter Ego. A touch of brood and intention here. Follows to the palate where the tone is serious. Firm dark crunch of nice small berry fruit and gently baked plum flesh. Good gentle structure, fine grained tannin - really smart - but quite fine and quite a tightish middle. Just ripe, 'liquid' fruit intensity. Good and smart wine in the vintage. They have equal amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the vineyard - and the ratios change year to year in the blend. In 2017 They lost 15 HA of vines to the frost - all Cabernet (on the Western side of the estate) and so the Merlot proportion is higher than normal this year. Rating: 94 L&S (Apr 2018)


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The 2017 Palmer was cropped at 38hl/ha between 20 and 29 September and then matured in 65% new oak (though this sample was taken from a used barrel as usual). For me there is quite a large difference between the Palmer and Alter Ego, the bouquet here is much more sophisticated and demonstrating more delineation: black fruit, iris, brown spices, a touch of clove and a subtle brine influence in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannin, crisp acidity, smooth and harmonious with a palpable sense of tension. I love the purity here, almost to an extent that I felt like asking Thomas Duroux to eschew the new oak! This has great potential and I love the typicité that I hope will not be obstructed. Drinking range: 2023 - 2050 Rating: 93-95 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2018)

54% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot. Apparently the blends were made particularly early this year, almost before the beginning of the malos. No selected yeast added. No SO2 on the berries, helping to fix the colour. Black core. A little smoky and reduced, more closed/restrained than the Alter Ego. Tannins are firm but so fluid. The tannins are somehow deceptive, they seem so velvety. Very fresh, subtle and extremely persistent. Incredibly pure, and very long. So fluid (though I have to be careful because apparently fluide in French means 'dilute') and incredibly elegant. Drinking range: 2027 - 2047 Rating: 17.5+ Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2018)

The 2017 Palmer, a blend of 54% Merlot with 42% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Petit Verdot, is very deep purple-black in color and leaps from the glass with freshly macerated blue and black fruits: wild blueberries, blackberries and black cherries plus hints of licorice, rose hips, tilled soil and oolong tea with a waft of truffles. Medium-bodied, very finely crafted with exquisitely ripe and smooth yet firm tannins and sporting great mid-palate intensity and wonderful freshness, it finishes long and minerally. Rating: 96-98 Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.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.

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