Beschreibung:

Château Palmer--Vintage 1945
1 bottle per lot
A Brief History of Château Palmer By Charles Curtis MW, Head of North American Wine Sales Château Palmer occupies a special place in the affections of Bordeaux lovers. Few would deny that it is one of the leading estates of the Margaux appellation, and indeed of the entire region. The origins of Palmer predate the birth of the current château. Originally a portion of the vines of Château d'Issan, this land had produced wine for generations before the Médoc was drained by Dutch engineers. Some of the vines that now make up Palmer passed from the 18th century heirs of the Foix-Candale family in pre-revolutionary times to the Gascq family, proprietors of a number of vineyards in the area. They expanded this holding to include vines near Château Margaux, bolstering the quality and reputation of the cru. The final heir of the Gascq legacy sold the property in 1814 to the Englishman Charles Palmer, a general under Wellington who had fought Napoleon prior to falling in love with Bordeaux. General Palmer expanded his holdings to eventually total 163 hectares (ha). Investing in his estate, he improved quality and used the political connections developed as an aide to the Prince of Wales to implant his wine at the tables of the English court. Excessive spending on his estate unfortuately hastened difficult times for his fortune, and he began to sell plots of land, followed in 1843 by the sale of his beloved château to Françoise-Marie Bergerac. Managed for a decade by a bank, Palmer was sold in 1853 to the Péreire brothers, railroad tycoons who replanted their vineyard in an effort to combat oidium, the vineyard scourge of the era. The Péreire family ownership survived not only oidium, but also the phylloxera epidemic that followed it, as well as the First World War. Difficult times during the depression forced Palmer's sale in 1938 to the group of investors that included members of the Mähler-Besse, Sichel, Ginestet and Mialhe families. Although the Ginestet and Mialhe families have sold their shares, members of the Mähler-Besse and Sichel families and their descendants are proprietors of Château Palmer to this day. The Sichel interests are represented by Allan Sichel, who took over from his father Peter Allan Sichel in 1996. With the third, and soon the fourth generation of the Frédérik Mähler-Besse descendants, many families are now involved in property Chateau Palmer, some of which are still in charge of the company Mähler-Besse. The Palmer estate itself was managed by decades by the son-in-law of Frédérick, Jean Bouteiller, followed by his son Bertrand until 2004. The estate is today managed by the gifted oenologist Thomas Duroux, whose team produces today a maximum of 8,000 - 10,000 cases of the Grand Vin and 7,000 - 8,000 cases of Alter Ego. This second bottling is aptly named: the English translation of the Latin name is "The Other I," and Alter Ego expresses the exuberance and joie de vivre of the estate, while the Grand Vin expresses its classical elegance and harmony. Quality under the present owners has seldom faltered. Palmer produced legendary wines in all of the great postwar vintages: the '45, '59, and '61 are all legends and wines of stature that stand with the best of the Médoc. Vintages that might have been "lesser" at other châteaux have proved triumphs for Palmer. Their '66 and '70 are particularly well regarded today, and more recent years have seen vintage after vintage of top notch wines: '81-'82-'83; '85-'86; '89-'90. Newer vintages from the '90s and the glorious years of the 21st-century confirm and expand this wonderful reputation. Palmer Estate: Connoisseur's Corner The vineyard has fluctuated over time, and today is 52 ha, close in size to the original plot carved out of d'Issan. The vines are planted on the deep gravel beds that typify the best Margaux terroirs, here up to four meters deep. The composition of the vineyard has also changed over time, and today represents a blend that is almost unique in the