Chateau Palmer Alter Ego de Palmer 2016
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Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
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Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spectator
Wine
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A super fresh and expressive nose with a wealth of ripe red and dark plums, as well as blackberries and cassis, with subtle cedar and bracken complexity. The palate has a deeply rich, long and assertive style with a deep-set, flavorful and structured finish. Classically styled with great depth. Second wine of Château Palmer. Try from 2023.
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Wine Enthusiast
This richly structured and tannic wine offers dark fruit and ripe tannins. The second wine of Château Palmer, it’s full of black-plum and dense berry flavors balanced by the acidity and the structure. Age this wine and drink from 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Blended of 48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 12% Petit Verdot, the deep garnet-purple colored 2016 Alter Ego de Palmer opens with beautifully expressive notes of black cherries, fresh blackberries and redcurrants plus suggestions of menthol, dark chocolate, cloves and underbrush. Medium to full-bodied with a rich mid-palate and stacks of exuberant black and red fruits, it has a velvety texture and fantastically long finish.
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Decanter
There was a rough 60/40 split in terms of Palmer to Alter Ego in 2016 because it was a concentrated vintage and so suited the Palmer style - an interesting insight into how they blend. This is a little stricter than the typical Alter Ego, the pure and rich cassis fruit hitting you straight away, but the seduction comes through after a few moments in the glass, when ripe damson and grilled almonds appear. It has lovely freshness, and such a different fruit expression to the 2015 (which I tasted last week, so it's fresh in my mind). The 2015 was more generous, whereas here there's a clearer floral, violet edge. It may take a little longer than usual to really lay meat on the bones, but this is clearly going to reward patience.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Alter Ego is cut from the same cloth as the grand vin, just less intense, with beautiful cassis fruits, notes of spring flowers, spice, and cedar pencil. A lovely, elegant wine, it has some similarities to the 2010, yet is ever so slightly more elegant, with softer tannins. Drink this beauty any time over the coming 20 years or more.
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Wine Spectator
Features an overt core of ripe plum and blackberry confiture flavors, lined with cocoa and fresh humus hints. A lacing of singed alder in the background helps harness the fruit, with cassis bush and licorice snap notes checking in on the finish. Drink now through 2030.
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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.