CHÂTEAU PALMER

2017 3ème Cru Classé Margaux

EN PRIMEUR

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)

It's very interesting to watch a 'super-second' risk scaling back the muscular attributes of its wine. The key, says director Thomas Duroux, was building the blend carefully and using the press wines to preserve the mid-palate (12% press in this wine, around the same as the 2015). It's less powerful and concentrated than the last few vintages, and yet the wine feels sculpted and sewn into place. The fine tannins are extremely clear and precise, and there's a purity of fruit expression that gives an overwhelming initial impression. The aromatics are really striking, offering an abundance of violet notes on the nose with huge finesse. It just gets better and better in the mouth,, and the tannins do that slow-build thing that is so disarming. This has clear ageing potential. Very low SO2 use for the past few years, in keeping with their biodynamic principles. Just one plot of Petit Verdot for the grand vin was hit by frost. Harvested 20-29 September. 11,000 cases of Palmer, representing 55% of the crop. Drinking range: 2026 - 2040 Rating: 95 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2018)

One of the more inky, black-colored wines in the vintage, the 2017 Palmer is a powerhouse effort that has a big, rich, chewy style as well as tons of chocolaty black and blue fruits, graphite, licorice, truffle, and hints of violets. A blend of 54% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Petit Verdot, harvested between the 20th and 29th of September, it has a powerful, full-bodied style, building tannin, and is impeccably balanced. It’s one of the vintage’s most promising efforts but is going to need 3-4 years of cellaring. It should last for two decades or more. Rating: 92-95 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Apr 2018)

This is a sexy and well-formed 2017 with very velvety and suave tannins that go on for minutes. Full-bodied, soft and round. Extremely long and last for minutes. Rating: 97 - 98 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2018)

This is solidly ripe, with juicy energy adding extra lift to the mix of plum, cherry and blackberry fruit. A super-fresh iron streak checks in, along with mouthwatering bay and savory notes. This stands out from the pack. Rating: 92-95 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2018)

There was frost here, but only the western section of the vineyard, on parcels that pertain more to the second wine than the grand vin. The yield on the parcels that escaped the frost was 44 hl/ha, although the figure across the entire domaine was 38 hl/ha. The harvest began on September 20th, and was finished by the 29th. The blend in this vintage is 54% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Petit Verdot. The grand vin took 55% of the useful crop, the alcohol is 13.2% and the IPT is 71. This has a quite glorious, open and expressive nose, filled with the scents of smoked cherry, spiced red plum and black bean, and while convincing I find it less confidently fragrant than usual, as I am frequently blown away by Palmer’s floral perfume at this stage. It has a tense, well controlled palate, fresh and broad, with confident black olive and black cherry stone fruits, with a very ripe belt of velvety tannins wrapped around it, firm and impressive for the appellation in this vintage. A firm, long grip in the finish. Overall, in Margaux, a top-class result. Rating: 94-96 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2018)

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.