2021 CHÂTEAU PALMER 3ème Cru Classé Margaux, Lea & Sandeman

CHÂTEAU PALMER

2023 3ème Cru Classé Margaux

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

More reserved and understated than the Alter Ego on the first nose, with touch of gumoke reduction, but it doesn't take long to understand that this Palmer is full of coiled energy and lift. A ton of graphite, crushed rocks, crushed roses and peonies come in waves of aromatics through the palate, along with clearly defined and sculpted blue and red fruits. There is spice too, and a sense of momentum. 32hl/h yield, 55% new oak for ageing during the first year; with the wine then moving in moves into 3000l oak casks for the second year. Drinking range: 2032 - 2048 Rating: 97 Jane Anson, www.janeanson.com (May 2024)


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A breathtaking wine, the 2023 Palmer is sensational. Inky, rich and explosive, the 2023 is a real head-turner. Readers will find an extroverted, dense Palmer that is immediately captivating. Here, too, the balance is mind-blowing. Ample and resonant, the 2023 is striking in its beauty. Waves of layered fruit rush out first, building through to the back end with stunning aromatic intensity. There is no other wine like Palmer in Bordeaux. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of a great Pomerol, as heretical as that might sound! If I could pick only one wine to own from the 2023 vintage, Palmer might very well be it. Drinking range: 2033 - 2063 Rating: 98-100 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (May 2024)

This takes two-thirds of the crop, and the blend is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot. A very dark and perfumed core of fruit on the nose, blackberries, griottes, black violets, rose and peony, very typical of Palmer, and there is a suggestion of a salty minerality to it as well. The palate is a hedonist’s delight, with an immediate polish, texture and substance, like creamed black summer fruits, laced with tar, dark chocolate and salted liquorice, underpinned by a fine grained and tightly knit tannic structure. Great ripeness here, sensitively extracted, showing dense structure but also brilliant harmony, with a great sense of drive and vigour as well. This is beautiful, very distinctive, undeniably from the Palmer vineyard, and truly worth putting away in your cellar. Brilliant. The alcohol is 13.8% on analysis. Rating: 97-99 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2024)

The 2023 Palmer represents two-thirds of the crop this year, raised in barrel (50% new) until July, then racked into 3,000-liter foudres for another 12 months. My sample was representative of the new oak ratio. The nose is very intense, as normal, loaded with blackberry, boysenberry, violet and veins of blood orange in the background. Powerful, though not in the same way as the barnstorming 2022, it manages to retain focus. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grip on the entry. This is quite a deep Palmer with touches of licorice-tinged black fruit. It’s more opulent than almost all other Margaux wines this vintage, furnished with black pepper and allspice on the finish. It will require several years in bottle. The 2023 Palmer is one of the most long-term, serious wines on the Left Bank. Drinking range: 2030 - 2065 Rating: 95-97 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2024)

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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