The 2020 Alter Ego de Palmer has turned out beautifully, bursting with aromas of violets and rose petals mingled with notions of sweet dark berries and baking chocolate. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and seamless, it's vibrant and perfumed, with a bright core of fruit, powdery tannins and a long, expansive finish. It's a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot. 2026 - 2045
Gorgeous perfumes of plums, berries, light chocolate and walnut follow through to a medium body, fine tannins and crunchy finish. Bright and fresh. Precise tannins. Drinkable but better after 2027.
Chocolate shavings and smoked coffee bean on the nose, it's a vintage where you can't get away from the tannins, but here they have sinew and juice, like the best translation of the tannins in the year. This has real purity of fruit (very low SO2 addition at Palmer), together with the gourmet touch that you want in Alter Ego. 45% of overall production. 3.73pH. Survived mildew better than in 2018 because of experience in dealing with the conditions. August 15 to 29 for the harvest. A yield of 31hl/ha.
Drinking Window 2024 - 2038
50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot. Cask sample.
Very much in the Alter Ego mould – lively, fruit-driven with that vineyard-fresh feel but with a little more structure than previous years. Pure and appetising but will age. (JL) 13.7%
Drink 2026 – 2035
A density to smell that is typical of many wines in the year, very Merlot blackberry, and very mineral, too; full and fresh and finely tannic; an immediately showy, ample, fruit-bomb style: generously ripe, amply juicy, fleshy, mouthfilling, spicy, but with fine length to taste, plus the necessary defining freshness, and excellent persistence. A particulary succulent, satisfying Margaux. 2026–40.