Château Palmer. Super second on the Primeurs front line...

Primeurs 2009 Margaux

Château Palmer

Super second
on the Primeurs front line...

In 2004, Thomas Duroux, an engineer trained at the ENITA school and oenologist, joigned Château Palmer to take in charge the technical function and the management of the estate. A challenge for him in the world of the prestigious wines... Château Palmer, which progresses amongst the Third Classed Growths of 1855, is often considered as a Super Second...

Château Palmer first was the property of major-general Palmer, a passionate who got ruined for it, then of the brothers Péreire, extremely rich bankers-entrepreneurs, lost by the 1930 crisis and who erected the current château. Several families of the Bordeaux wine merchants then united to reform the domaine, made up today of 45 ha on a hilltop of Garonne gravel, overhanging the Gironde. In spite of his age (34) in 2004, Thomas Duroux returns to his roots in the Bordeaux region and goes straight in at the top of Château Palmer to take over the reins. His 'expeditions' in great estates in Hungary, South Africa, Montpellier and Tuscany for Mondavi, and even in Bordeaux, helped him forge a sound technical experience. At the beginning, he was often asked the question about which difference he could notice between the management of an estate like Palmer and of one like Ornellaia in Tuscany for Mondavi? He answered: “Ornellaia is a superb vineyard of the new world, planted over 81 hectares on an age-old land, and in a perpetual quest of its identity. As for Palmer, it is a wine known world-wide for decades with a history, a style, a terroir. Palmer reveals its character, some identity. Unlike the new world, we cannot change everything overnight, and I have to work with my team on a multitude of details to better the wine while keeping the style.”

“Our aficionados would be disorientated if we changed the Palmer style! It would be like killing a character of a novel! A few wines in Bordeaux have a very strong identity and to my mind Palmer is one of them.” now ads Thomas Duroux.
The second wine of Palmer, Alter Ego, was created in 1998 from the ‘General's Reserve’. The shareholders wanting to change the name, the marketing has created the style of the wine Alter Ego, with differences from the harvest, and adapting the vinifications: “Alter Ego is a wine on fruits, with precise tannins, ample without harshness. We set up a 3rd wine for the trade to really construct Palmer and Alter Ego.” Thomas Duroux explains.
Speaking about details... He works on the methodology of pumping-over. The Palmer wines are renowned for their feminity, delicacy, structure precision, which leads to the importance, at the extraction, thus at the pumping-over, to extract less but better.
“Each vat is considered as a wine. We have projects about the working tools, the management of the vineyard and the soils, to go into the detail of each plot and to find new solutions... We have to be always perfectible!” he comments.
As for the 2009, this vintage will remain a very, very great year, in the vineyard as much as in the vatroom and the winery. A vintage of anthology. “In my carreer, the 2001 in Tuscany, 2005 and 2009 in Bordeaux are my greatest vintages... with a special attachment to 2009 as it is the closest, the most interesting. 2005 is all made of exuberance, flesh, a nearly Latin expression. 2009 is more precise and has an exceptional link with the soil. It makes concrete the real identity card of Palmer to its terroir: a genuine Palmer in its style.” he gives away.
“The main markets for Alter Ego are France, Japan and United Kingdom. For Palmer, rather United States, United Kingdom and Asia which is developing. The market of the Primeur wines is volatile and changeable... as every year the First are and remain leaders... For those that follow, we have to be serene and confident in the trade which has an expert experience of the markets.” Thomas Duroux asserts.

Florence Varaine
Château PALMER
33460 MARGAUX
Tél. : +33 (0)5 57 88 72 72

Fax : +33 (0)5 57 88 37 16

www.chateau-palmer.com