1966 Château Palmer - Margaux 3 Ième Grand Cru Classé
The Palmer 1966 is almost half a century old, but still nowhere near its retirement. The light maroon color is perfectly normal for its age and level (topshoulder), the aroma’s soaring from the glass however were not only incredibly deep and complex but also stunningly youthful. Firstly there’s still lots of fruitiness (black currants and sweet red cherries) intermingled with fresh spices (white pepper and bay leaf) tealeaves and delicate floral notes (rose petals). Given a little time the more evolved aroma’s showing as well : cigarbox, lots of forest (underbrush, dry leaves, mushrooms and a hint of truffle) and even a touch of leather and fur revealing itself as layer after layer slowly opened up. After a couple of hours when most of the fruit had slowly begin to fade I also noticed a briny aroma and some capers. If smells were fireworks,this was the grand finale.
This bouquet already made my mouth water, and tasting the wine even more. There are literally no sharp edges here, just a stunning depth and length. Incredibly soft is anunderstatement, the tannins here are more delicate than a snowflake, melting away as it hit the palate. This velvety lushness combined with the juicy acidity and warmth from the alcohol have such an impeccable balance and youthfulness I checked the vintage on the bottle just to make sure we weren’t mistaking by a couple of decades. We weren’t, and so I realized this was just one of those few really exceptional wines I was lucky enough to be able to taste.
