Alter Ego De Palmer Margaux 1.50L

2272047* 

$322.59 $282.99 price per bottle

Wine maker notes Palmer and its Alter Ego are two nuanced expressions of the Chateau Palmer terroir, two interpretations of the variations offered by the climatic conditions of the vintage. These variations can be likened, in music, to symphonic pieces and their jazz adaptations, in the visual arts, to a classic painting and a contemporary rendering of the same subject, and, in literature, to an epic narrative in alexandrine verse and a prose poem. Alter Ego was born with the 1998 vintage. It resulted from a new approach to selecting and blending devised to interpret the Chateau Palmer terroir differently without departing from the values that make the reputation of our wines – namely, finesse and elegance, aromatic richness, harmony and length. Offering intense, crispy and juicy fruits, Alter Ego is a spontaneous uninhibited wine, soft and round as soon as it has finished barrel ageing. Its lush aromas and supple tannins make it a wine that can be appreciated in the first years after bottling. At the end of the summer, the slowly maturing berries are regularly tasted to evaluate their potential. We pay attention to the taste of the grape, the thickness of the skin, and the resistance of the seed. By this time we already have a sense of what the wines will be like. We are looking for lush grapes for Alter Ego that will release the aromas of fresh fruit. Harvesting and vinification decisions are made based on the idea that we have of the Chateau Palmer and Alter Ego style. Final blend tastings usually come to confirm our intuitions. The batches chosen for Alter Ego are then blended and put into barrels to age for 18 months. The fruitiness and aromatic intensity are preserved by the use of a moderate percentage of new oak barrels (25 to 40%).
Producer Charles Palmer. On a spring day in 1814, Lieutenant Colonel Palmer made the auspicious acquaintance of a young widow named Marie Brunet de Ferriere. Sharing a stagecoach ride across France, the noblewoman fell for the charms of the dashing soldier whose reputation for conquests - both military and romantic - already preceded him. By journey’s end, she had agreed to sell him the Medoc vineyards she’d just inherited. Without ever having visited, this son of a Bath brewer, aide-de-camp to the Prince Regent and future major general in the British Army, became the owner of domaine de Gascq. An estate renowned for the quality of its wines since the beginning of the 18th century, Charles Palmer spent 30 years enlarging and modernizing it, finally instilling it with such a timeless style, it would forever carry his name: Chateau Palmer. The Pereire brothers. By the mid-19th century, Émile and Isaac Pereire had built an empire. Railways, real estate, banking, and cutting-edge industry bore their name. Yet something was missing. Raised in Bordeaux, the children of immigrants, they still dreamed of grandeur in that region closest to their hearts. Both dreamed of acquiring Chateau Palmer. In 1853, they finally did. They then set about reorganizing it around a neo-Renaissance chateau, built from scratch in a single year. Its surrounding outbuildings became the Village, spaces for work and pleasure dedicated to wine. Neither the mildew nor the phylloxera that struck in the late 19th century, not even the First World War, could tarnish their achievements. Chateau Palmer, it seems, was destined to cross the centuries. Today. Consecration. Since 1938, Chateau Palmer has distinguished itself as one of Bordeaux’s leading grand crus. In less than a century, four families have helped to drive the estate towards international recognition. Today, two have remained to lead it into a new era. The Mahler-Besse family, originally from the Netherlands, made its name in the textile and wine business. The Sichel family specialized in the distribution of fine wines in the UK, France and Germany. Together, their descendants rebuilt the estate after the Second World War, and brought into the world a number of exceptional vintages, including the legendary 1961. They have now entrusted the direction of Chateau Palmer to Thomas Duroux, but continue to ensure the estate evolves sustainably, attentive to the world that surrounds it.