CHATEAU PALMER - LEGEND

CHATEAU PALMER

Chateau Palmer is a Third Growth 'claret'.

This ranking originated in the 1855 Bordeaux classification which is and was a concise ranking of all serious Bordeaux wine producers back in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is complicated and has engendered many fiery debates over the last 184 years but still is a kind of 'rule of thumb' for serious wine buyers and drinkers. If you want you can buy the book and have a read of it and the history of the classification. This is best done while having a bottle of claret open.

The history is worth reading and I recommend it as I would reading The Disappearing Spoon - Sam Kean's history of the Periodic Table which is described thus:

"The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements"

This is a cracking good read and should be in everyone's library.

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Back to the 1855 Classification.

The Official 1855 Classification

First-Growths / Premières Crus

Château Lafite Rothschild Pauillac
Château Latour Pauillac
Château Margaux Margaux
Château Haut-Brion Pessac, Graves (since 1986, Pessac-Léognan)

Second-Growths / Deuxièmes Crus

Château Mouton-Rothschild (elevated to first-growth in 1973) Pauillac
Château Rausan-Ségla Margaux
Château Rauzan-Gassies Margaux
Château Léoville Las Cases St.-Julien
Château Léoville Poyferré St.-Julien
Château Léoville Barton St.-Julien
Château Durfort-Vivens Margaux
Château Gruaud-Larose St.-Julien
Château Lascombes Margaux
Château Brane-Cantenac Cantenac-Margaux (now Margaux)
Château Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac
Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande  Pauillac
Château Ducru-Beaucaillou St.-Julien
Château Cos-d'Estournel St.-Estèphe
Château Montrose St.-Estèphe

Third-Growths / Troisièmes Crus

Château Kirwan Cantenac-Margaux (now Margaux)
Château d'Issan Cantenac-Margaux (now Margaux)
Château Lagrange St.-Julien
Château Langoa Barton St.-Julien
Château Giscours Labarde-Margaux (now Margaux)
Château Malescot-St.-Exupéry Margaux
Château Cantenac-Brown Cantenac-Margaux (now Margaux)
Château Boyd-Cantenac Margaux
Château Palmer Cantenac-Margaux (now Margaux)
Château La Lagune Ludon (now Haut-Médoc)
Château Desmirail Margaux
Château Calon-Ségur St.-Estèphe
Château Ferrière Margaux
Château Marquis-d'Alesme-Becker Margaux

Fourth-Growths / Quatrièmes Crus

Château St.-Pierre St.-Julien
Château Talbot St.-Julien
Château Branaire-Ducru St.-Julien
Château Duhart-Milon Rothschild Pauillac
Château Pouget Cantenac-Margaux (now Margaux)
Château La Tour Carnet St.-Laurent (now Haut-Médoc)
Château Lafon-Rochet St.-Estèphe
Château Beychevelle St.-Julien
Château Prieuré-Lichine Cantenac-Margaux ( now Margaux)
Château Marquis de Terme Margaux

Fifth-Growths / Cinquièmes Crus

Château Pontet-Canet Pauillac
Château Batailley Pauillac
Château Haut-Batailley Pauillac
Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste Pauillac
Château Grand-Puy-Ducasse Pauillac
Château Lynch Bages Pauillac
Château Lynch-Moussas Pauillac
Château Dauzac Labarde (now Margaux)
Château Mouton-Baronne-Philippe (Château d'Armailhac after 1989) Pauillac
Château du Tertre Arsac (now Margaux)
Château Haut-Bages Libéral Pauillac
Château Pédesclaux Pauillac
Château Belgrave St.-Laurent (now Haut-Médoc)
Château Camensac St.-Laurent (now Haut-Médoc)
Château Cos Labory St.-Estèphe
Château Clerc Milon Pauillac
Château Croizet-Bages Pauillac
Château Cantemerle Macau (now Haut-Médoc)

1855 Classification of Sauternes and Barsac

Great First-Growth / Grand Premier Cru

Château d'Yquem Sauternes

First-Growths / Premières Crus

Château La Tour Blanche Bommes (now Sauternes)
Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey Bommes (now Sauternes)
Clos Haut-Peyraguey  Bommes (Sauternes)
Château de Rayne Vigneau Bommes (now Sauternes)
Château Suduiraut Preignac (now Sauternes)
Château Coutet Barsac
Château Climens Barsac
Château Guiraud Sauternes
Château Rieussec Fargues (now Sauternes)
Château Rabaud-Promis Bommes (now Sauternes)
Château Sigalas Rabaud Bommes (now Sauternes)

Second-Growths / Deuxièmes Crus

Château Myrat  Barsac
Château Doisy Daëne Barsac
Château Doisy-Dubroca Barsac
Château Doisy-Védrines Barsac
Château d'Arche Sauternes
Château Filhot Sauternes
Château Broustet Barsac
Château Nairac Barsac
Château Caillou Barsac
Château Suau Barsac
Château de Malle Preignac (now Sauternes)
Château Romer  Fargues (now Sauternes)
Château Lamothe Sauternes

It's interesting how many Sauternes and Barsacs were included and shows how sweet wines were so popular back in the 19th century.

Looking at this list again after many years reminds me of the great wines I've been lucky enough to drink and some of the chateaux that I've visited. I reminisced on this so bear with me here or scroll down a few paragraphs to the main part of the post.

In the First Growth list of reds I've drunk all of those from numerous vintages and have visited Lafite, Margaux, Haut Brion and Mouton-Rothschild,

In the Second Growth list I've drunk all from various vintages and have visited  Rausan-Ségla, Pichon-Longueville Baron, Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande and Cos d'Estournel.

In the Third Growth list I've drunk all of various vintages except Desmirail and Marquis d'Alesme-Becker which I've never seen. I've visited Kirwan, Lagrange, Giscours, La Lagune and Palmer.

The Fourth Growths are less familiar to me but I've drunk all of them. I've only visited Prieuré-Lichine and Beychevelle.

Of the Fifth Growths I've drunk most but am unfamiliar with Lynch-Moussas, Dauzac, and Pédesclaux. I've only visited Lynch Bages and Clerc Milon.

The sweet wines are a bit of a mystery to me. I've enjoyed a few vintages of Château d'Yquem, Haut-Peyraguey, Suduiraut, Filhot, Coutet, Climens and Rieussec and the odd bottle of Lamothe, Nairac and Caillou but some of the others I've never seen. I've never visited any of the chateaux in Sauternes or Barsac.

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Anyway - back to Chateau Palmer.

The1855 Classification ranked Palmer as a third growth.

In recent times Palmer is seen by all wine aficionados as a greater wine than this ranking and is known as a 'super second'. Even this unofficial ranking isn't high enough with many believing that if the 1855 classification were to be redone then Palmer would be a first growth.

The Classification was the making of many chateaux and the unmaking of others. After release of it the pricing (bulk at that stage) was determined by the ranking and those ranked highly secured the highest prices. This is still seen today with first growth bottles being valued at two, three or four times higher than second and third growth bottles and fourth and fifth growth valued lower. Still expensive but cheaper. The high prices commanded by bulk (barrels) and bottle has enabled those chateaux higher on the ranking scale to invest more in land, vines, production facilities and winemaking and have been able to continually improve. Many of the lower classed wines have suffered comparatively and now will never reach the giddy heights of the first growths and the 'super seconds'

Palmer consistently commands prices higher than all of the other third growth wines and most of the second growths. It has a reputation of greater quality consistency than many if not all of its peers and, in great years has outdone first growths in ranking. One of those great years was 1961 which is legendary having been a perfect growing season combined with lower yields and resultant more intense and concentrated wines that have lasted to this day. 

Wine Legend: Château Palmer 1961


Stephen Brook of Decanter in 2017 had this to say about 1961 Palmer:

 WINE LEGEND - CHATEAU PALMER 1961

Brook says:

"A legend because…
Although it was not immediately apparent, this vintage would propel Palmer into the top ranks of the Médoc. Within two decades the price of this third growth rivalled, and in some cases exceeded, that of the first growths. To this day it is not entirely clear why Palmer should have performed so magnificently in this vintage. But it was no fluke: the 1962 was also a great wine. The fame of the Palmer may have been amplified by the fact that the other major player in the village, Château Margaux, was underperforming in the 1960s."

I can attest to that . I've tried 1961 Palmer in formal wine tasting situations and at the chateau with the owners. Both times it was magnificent.

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In the early 1990s my partner (Her Indoors) and I were guests of Peter and Diana Sichel, co-owners of Chateau Palmer at the time. We were being entertained at their home Chateau Angludet and were 

preparing to go and dine at the nearby Chateau Palmer. 

Chateau Palmer is (or certainly was  at that time) unoccupied but the dining room had been prepared and staff on hand to cater to dinner. There were six of us - the Sichels, Her Indoors and me and the CEO of a UK brewery and his wife. We had an elegant dinner with a Bordeaux white wine and two vintages of Palmer.

Peter brought out two bottles of 1961, carefully decanted them and unceremoniously served them with the main (lamb). This is the way I like to drink Bordeaux or indeed and good red wine - with a good meal. The wine was sumptuous, the food great and the company stimulating and interesting.

We relished the wine and, with my third glassful I held some back to savour it. Discussion of course was on the wine and the vintage and Peter enthused about recent vintages and went to get a couple of bottles of 1989 Palmer. He quickly uncorked and decanted and poured us all a glass. That wine was excellent. Young (at that time the current release), very highly rated as most of the 1989s were and continuing the recent tradition of Palmer quality. Peter went around the table topping up glasses and I had left my half glass of 1961  on the table and had the 1989 in my hand out of sight. The 1961 was topped up with the 1989. I didn't comment but saw that Diana Sichel had noticed. She caught my eye and raised an eyebrow, I smiled and shrugged and swirled and sipped the new blend. I didn't make a fuss to spoil a great moment. The resultant combination was an explosion of flavour in my mouth. The silky 1961 which was outstanding in its own right was boosted by the powerful and rich 1989. I'm a proponent of blending wines at table and particularly in refreshing older wines with younger vintages. 

See: DRINKING THE BLOOD OF YOUNG VIRGINS REJUVENATES ME

This was a great dining experience and one fondly remembered.

Peter died in 1998 and his sons run the family business now including Chateau Palmer.




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ALL IN THE FAMILY

Thanks to the excellent Countdown 20% off sale I was able to buy some Te Mata Estate chardonnay 2017 and Te Mata Elston chardonnay 2017 that were both on special with the extra 20% discount on top making them great value for money. The 20 % extra discount is applicable for purchases of 6 or more mixed bottles of any wines so I bought a few for the cellar and put a bottle of each in the fridge.

I took advantage of the opportunity of having both the 'big brother' and the 'little brother' from the same vintage available and opened one of each at the same time.

The Estate wine is quite fragrant with really nice melon and stone-fruit characters and a little bit of nuttiness.
The taste is bright and refreshing but still with some weight to it. There is a creaminess in the mouth which becomes more obvious the longer the wine is open (I kept it in the fridge and tasted over three days).
This is a great wine and I'll be looking out for deals in the future. The double discounted price brought it down to about $16 a bottle.

'Big brother' Elston was tighter on the nose initially with a mineral character that the Estate didn't have - the Estate being more fruity. There are the same stone-fruit characters but a bit more nuttiness along with honey and fresh bread (like a Blanc de Blanc Champagne).

The taste is more oaky but finishes fresh. The acidity will drop over time and the bigger fruit will be there longer. This looks like it will round out to a sumptuous chardonnay. I'd better get some more.

Having these side by side was interesting . The colours are different with the Elston being a bit more golden.

The Estate wine is lighter on the nose and fruitier with the Elston being denser, showing more wood and malolactic character with a whiff of something else - perhaps complexity from being sealed with a cork instead of screw-cap.

There is definitely a 'family resemblance'. Well done to Te Mata for consistency and faithfullness to terroir.

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I like trying different wines from the same stable side by side. Often the lesser wine is of a more recent vintage than the bigger wine but these two are from the same 2017 vintage. With other good producers the top wine is usually a lot more expensive. With Te Mata they've kept the price of Elston down to a reasonable level given its quality.

I've got some Sacred Hill in the cellar - Rifleman's and The Wine Thief chardonnays but the Rifleman's is 2016 vintage and The Wine Thief is 2017 so the side by side comparison won't be as exact. Rifleman's also is a helluva a lot more expensive that The Wine Thief so ready comparisons are fewer and further in between.

THE LITTLE THINGS IN LIFE

I'm still on the hunt for half bottles of wine but I'm not really having much luck. The only offerings tend to be sweet wines which I very rarely drink or prosecco-like sparklings which are crap.
Glengarry has a Champagne Moutard at $24 for a 375ml bottle which I might give a try but I really want good chardonnay and pinot noir.

Villa Maria to give them credit do a range of the Private Bin in 375ml which is available in supermarkets but I'm looking for higher quality wines.

Years ago many brands carried 375 ml variants (and bigger formats) of their best wines but this fell away when bigger production volumes demanded greater efficiencies and reduced costs and price points. 375 mls fell out of favour with stockists who presupposed that the consumer didn't want to pay more than half price for a half bottle of wine. In a way they were right given that 750ml bottles are so often on special so the price difference between the two sizes has become greater but they have misread the possible demand through convenience of the smaller format.
The economies are easy to work out. While there is only half the cost of the wine and the excise in the bottle the cost of the bottle, the label and the carton of the 375ml might actually be higher than the cost of the 750ml bottle, the label and the carton due to smaller production runs.

I've written about this before HERE and HERE.

750ml bottles with screw-caps (the format that I buy wine in 95% of the time) are convenient and keep in the fridge opened for up to a week but often I don't want to go through a whole bottle of the same wine day after day and it'd be nice to have the choice with smaller bottles. When it is the two of us a 375ml bottle of pinot noir say provides a nice generous glass for each of us.

Thorndon New World in Wellington used to stock a neat little range of quality half bottles including Te Mata Elston chardonnay. I'll be spending a bit of time in Wellington next year so hopefully they still will be doing this.

In New Zealand and I guess in most countries around the world wine purchasing is being done in supermarkets and bigger producers with greater volume efficiencies and economies of scale dominate. These producers through selling greater volumes have bigger advertising and promotional funds to ensure that they stay on the shelves. Smaller producers are forever getting squeezed and are casualties of ranging wars.

Smaller producers though, if they want to establish points of difference could do themselves a favour by producing ranges of half bottles these being of the same quality rating as their standard bottles i.e. not some cheaper crap wine. Being small these producers won't have the huge economies of scale in production of their main lines so a sub-set of 375 ml ranges might not necessarily be too much different in pro rata pricing. They will of course be more than half the price of the 750ml wine but shouldn't be say twice the price or more.

I hope that some of these guys will wake up to the opportunity.

EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE

I'm no longer working in the wine industry after a lifetime in sales, marketing and management in the international wine and spirit business.
My day to day job, in addition to my interest in wines provided me with up to date information on wine styles, trends and 'best buys' - a kind of finger on the pulse if you were.

I buy my wine nowadays from on-line sellers and when supermarkets have deep-cut specials. Generally I stick with styles, brands and wines that I have experience with and a knowledge of their history. If there is a wine that I don't know I often do a little bit of research on it before committing to buy any volume - normally a 6 or 12 bottle case.

Sometimes (rarely) I call in to a good retailer to browse the shelves and to seek out something new. In these instances I don't have immediate access to information and have to rely on a knowledgeable shop assistant. Last year when doing this I bought a selection of wines including a bottle of Nelson Pinot Noir - GREENHOUGH 2016.

The shop assistant recommended this wine after I mentioned that with New Zealand pinot noir my first preference for region is Waipara followed by Martinborough and then Central Otago with Marlborough being fourth. He recommended this Nelson wine "as having the best characteristics of the other regions". In my working career I was familiar with the wines of Nelson having travelled there a lot, bought wines in bulk and marketed some. In recent times though I've fallen out of touch with them and so had no immediate experience other than a glass or two of the excellent Neudorf pinots in wine bars or restaurants. I accepted the shop assistants recommendation and bought a bottle for I think just under $30. It sat in the cellar until we opened it and tried it yesterday.


The wine company has this to say about the wine:

Attractively aromatic. Summer berry-fruits, citrusy, floral notes and a lightly spiced, herbal fragrance. Suggestive of the outdoors. Earth, mushroom notes evolve as the wine opens in the glass. The palate is vibrant and brightly red-fruited with a light spicy savouriness and supple structure of well-bound tannins. There is a depth in the exotic guava and quince which have a secondary, preserve-like richness. A refreshing plum-skin tanginess and chalky, minerality balance these ripper flavours.

The retailer said this:

Impressively structured, the fruit washes over the palate in layers, moving from initial blackberry and dark plum, to slightly brighter strawberry and rose petal characters. All the while, the toasty oak and savouriness holds everything all together. A complex wine that offers unheard of value for money, this is Pinot Noir that any enthusiast should be looking to get their hands on.

Well, our finding was that while some of the words that both the producer and the retailer used to describe the wine fit, not all of them in combination do.
We agree on words like:

• lightly spiced
• Earth, mushroom notes
•  savouriness (both used this)

Words that we totally disagreed with - actually most of them but here a few highlights:

• Attractively aromatic
• The palate is vibrant
• 'ripper' flavours
• Impressively structured
• Complex wine
• Unheard of value for money

The wine is light, dry and savoury (meaning that the fruit has somehow been leeched out) and there us no real substance to it. My feeling is that it could do with having a 2018 vintage cheap red added to it to give it a bit of a kick. I'm glad that I only bought one bottle.

Intrigued to see if any one else felt this way I did an internet search on Greenhough Pinot Noir 2016 

and, amongst other retailers' glowing accolades found a couple of consumer comments on the VIVINO site. https://www.vivino.com/greenhough-pinot-noir/w/1319204?year=2016

"Pinot Noir. A simple quote lightly weighted Pinot. Red fruited, fresh and delicate. A luncheon weight wine that would probably do the job of a rose only better".

"The fresh red cherries and some crushed thyme on the nose is the best thing about it. Very light in style, it soon falls apart in the mouth and doesn’t quite live up to it’s scented promise. There is another kick of peppery spice on the finish that brings it around a little and it does have good acidity. Maybe letting this one rest a little longer will do it some justice, but it’s not for long-term in the cellar".

Yes, I agree with these.

This confirms my belief that it's a case of caveat emptor out there and it doesn't often pay to listen to a retailer or to read winewriter reviews - particularly those endorsed by the retailer selling the wine or the producer promoting it. Good old reliable wine competition accolades are a better bet. The best? Trying it yourself. Empirical knowledge.

VANITY LABELS

A lot of them do it and, in the past it made sense when customers called in to wineries to buy wine or most of the wine was sold through specialist wholesalers and retailers. The best wine was kept as a 'reserve' range and the very best, in small quantities  was labelled under a name special to the owner - themselves, their wives or husbands, their children or their pets.

When good producers had a strong following and most if not all of the wine company's stocks were sold out in a year an 'ultra premium' label, priced at two, three or four times the normal range was still able to be sold out and was often sought after.

That situation has changed. The change has been brought about over time by many factors including:

• massive increase in worldwide wine production
• the democratisation of global wine
• supermarket selling of wine
• demystification of wine regions, wine styles and wine labels

At the very top, prestige labels will always be in demand not only from well-heeled imbibers and collectors but from investors who want to buy and on-sell at auctions where a pretty penny can still be made on the rarer offerings.

At the middle and bottom though, most wine is sold on promotion, on special or at quit prices.  There is no room for expensive prestige labels. Even the excellent Villa Maria Black Label range is a slow mover. This label was initially created as a 'show pony' where the very best wine was made to garner medals and trophies in wine shows and competitions which was and is a very successful marketing strategy for the company. Initially these wines were made in tiny quantities, sometimes less than a hundred cases so there was never any problem in moving them along. They were sought after and sold quickly. As popularity grew so did the volume and that's when things stalled a bit. The high inputs required to consistently make trophy winning quality wine leads to high costs and sell prices for which there is a very limited market. The previously scarce Black Label wines became available in supermarkets, on on-line sites and on special. Villa Maria created the Gold Selection range of wines to move along volumes of the higher quality wine without compromising the price position of the Black Label range but even that range has been deep-cut discounted so a new range, the Platinum Selection has been introduced to do the job of the Gold Selection range but at a higher price. Now I'm seeing great deals on the Platinum Selection range. The other day I bought a lot at Countdown at basically  more than $8 a bottle off (over 30% saving) on the chardonnay, pinot gris and rose because they were specialled down to $20 a bottle from the previous shelf price of $25 and then subject to the 20% discount for purchases of 6 or more (mixed) bottles bringing the price down to $16. I'm happy and just hope that Villa Maria can sustain this without a drop in wine quality.

Anyway, Villa Maria is a big company and I guess know what they are doing. The ones who don't know what they are doing though are the small producers making OK sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, pinot gris and chardonnay who grow their business in the 'premium' area approximately $ 12 to $20 in NZ and pro-rata internationally.  Sales grow and so does their ego. A 'super-premium' range is usually added and can do reasonably well as long as volumes are kept low. This can then lead to a 'rush of blood to the head' and a 'luxury' label is created - the one that carries the owner's name or partner or pet. These wines, expensively made can be the ones that sit in warehouses and, if sold through the wholesale system to retail, gather dust on shelves. For the canny buyer they can be an excellent buy when the producer, wholesaler or retailer decides to pull the plug and special off at a quit price. A bit of knowledge of its pedigree and storage history is essential though. Personally I'll trust Villa Maria's Platinum Selection or the Black Label when on special at the supermarket.