Chateau Palmer 2004
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Perfect balance is in view but still requires a little time to emerge and to let the pure drinking pleasure take hold. Peak: 2010-2025
Blend: 47% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Fairly deep color. Gorgeous smoky, floral nose is flamboyant and seductive. It’s bright, intense, with rich cherry fruit, mint, and tobacco. The wonderful fruit character on the nose returns in the mouth; it’s soft and velvety, drinking beautifully right now! The 2004 is not one of the more complex Palmers, more floral and delicate than powerful, but everyone loved it. The terrific performance of the 2004 was easily the biggest surprise of the entire tasting.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine hits the opulent end of the spectrum, with its dense, velvet structure, and superrich fruit. But it is not weighed down with this richness, because the pure fruit, the fine lines of the tannins and the very precise character of the vanilla from the wood all give liveliness.
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Decanter
A blend of 47% Merlot, 46% Cabernet and 7% Petit Verdot from a large and bountiful crop, this was Thomas Duroux’s debut vintage at the estate. 2004 was also a classic vintage in Margaux and this is certainly on the elegant end of the spectrum, with cedar, cassis and shoe polish on the nose. The palate has poise and balance with a linear acidity, medium chalky, fine grained tannins alongside a delicious hit of primary blackcurrant and cherry fruit followed by a long mineral finish. Twelve years on from the vintage, this excellent 2004 is just beginning to move into its next phase of development when it will become even more complex and drinkable.
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Wine Spectator
Aromas of licorice, tar and mineral follow through to a full-bodied palate, with silky tannins and a medium finish. A very pretty wine already. Falls a little short, but still outstanding.
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Charles Palmer devoted a great deal of time, energy, and money to developing his property. The Major General lived mainly in England, and so the estate was managed by his authorized representative, Mr Grey, who helped to increase the wine's reputation among wealthy connoisseurs.
In June 1853, the brothers Isaac and Emile Péreire, famous bankers and rivals of the Rothschilds, bought Palmer and began investing in the estate immediately. However, there was not enough time to bring Chateau Palmer up to first growth status in time for the famous 1855 classification. It was thus ranked a Third Growth, although it is widely recognized as among the greatest wines of Bordeaux.
Several families of Bordeaux, English, and Dutch extraction all involved in the wine trade, united to buy Palmer in 1938 and have worked hard to give the estate its present reputation. These families have always given priority to quality, despite the financial risk this entailed. They have unfailingly applied the principles that have made the great wines of Bordeaux so successful: authenticity, quality, and permanence.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Silky, seductive and polished are the words that characterize the best wines from Margaux, the most inland appellation of the Médoc on the Left Bank of Bordeaux.
Margaux’s gravel soils are the thinnest of the Médoc, making them most penetrable by vine roots—some reaching down over 23 feet for water. The best sites are said to be on gentle outcrops, or croupes, where more gravel facilitates good drainage.
The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification but it is nonetheless important in regards to history of the area. In 1855 the finest chateaux were deemed on the basis of reputation and trading price—at that time. In 1855, Chateau Margaux achieved first growth status, yet it has been Chateau Palmer (officially third growth from the 1855 classification) that has consistently outperformed others throughout the 20th century.
Chateau Margaux in top vintages is capable of producing red Cabernet Sauvignon based wines described as pure, intense, spell-binding, refined and profound with flavors and aromas of black currant, violets, roses, orange peel, black tea and incense.
Other top producers worthy of noting include Chateau Rauzan-Ségla, Lascombes, Brane-Cantenac, and d’Issan, among others.
The best wines of Margaux combine a deep ruby color with a polished structure, concentration and an unrivaled elegance.