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

CHÂTEAU PALMER

2014 3ème Cru Classé Margaux

Colour Red
Origin France, Bordeaux
Sub-district Haut Médoc
Village Margaux
Classification 3ème Cru Classé
ABV 14%

Extremely impressive. Lucky for some others that we tasted this on our final day in Bordeaux - otherwise many other wines would have had a hard act to follow. This is long and sleek, but the feel is gorgeous; a fabulous density but beautifully delineated layers of flavour. Perfectly ripe morello cherries and a bite of plum skin framed by the finest, talcum powder textured tannins. Sleek and sophisticated it just goes on and on. 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot and 6% Petit Verdot all now farmed biodynamically. Rating: 94-95 L&S (Apr 2015)


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Intense plum colour. Plenty of dark bitter chocolate notes on the attack, with concentrated cassis fruits and chewy tannins balanced by fresh acidities, together giving an impression of concentration and finesse. Tobacco leaf as it opens, along with liqourice, grilled cedar, and a fist of rosemary spice. This needs a few more years to really soften the austerity but it's a great wine where Palmer is over-performing the vintage, something that must have given the team confidence in their decision to farm the entire vineyard biodynamically in this vintage, the 5th year after increasingly large-scale trials had begun. This was also the 200th anniversary vintage since General Charles Palmer bought the wine estate from Madame de Gascq. Harvest September 22 to October 14, 60% new oak. Drinking range: 2024 - 2040 Rating: 94 Jane Anson, Decanter (Dec 2021)

The 2014 Palmer has a clean and fresh blackberry, raspberry and cedar scented bouquet, not complex but nicely detailed. It just needs more personality to develop. The palate is medium-bodied with light tannin, a touch of espresso on the entry tincturing the red berry fruit, saline with a dash of white pepper on the finish. It is not an imposing Margaux, not the longest potentially lived, but it is well crafted. It would not surprise me if this Palmer is beginning to close down after bottling. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting. Drinking range: 2022 - 2045 Rating: 92+ Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Mar 2018)

Refined and classy and polished with the tannins well covered by fruit. Dry finish but ambitious rather than raw. Stony finish. Appetising. Drinking range: 2024 - 2040 Rating: 17.5 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Feb 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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