Chateau Palmer 3eme Cru Classe, Margaux

Wow this was open from the first pour. Lots of complexity on that very open Palmer/Margaux nose. Floral, plum, spice, earth, a nice Brett that added complexity. Truffle. Described as a mulled wine without sweetness by my friend which is a good description! Elegant and medium bodied nut in a good way. A Burgundian Bordeaux right now. I need to check on my 89s as this 90 is just on fire right now. Epic Bordeaux!

1990 vintage

Garnet red. Earthy notes with black tea, mint and violet. Smooth and refined. Drinking beautifully with some acid remaining.

1990 vintage

The nose is intoxicating, with perfumed cedar wood, lavender and smokey cigar ash laced with exotic banana aromas. The palate is completely softened and seamless, yet held by a surprising streak of good acidity. It showed beautifully for a full hour in the glass. The aromatic profile was reminiscent of a recent bottle of 1949 Petrus, though the palate for 1966 Palmer was superior. Perhaps slightly past its prime drinking window, but definitely still a beautiful & pleasurable old-school claret.

1966 vintage

The nose exhibited dark fruit, cassis, earth, iron, blood and truffle. Palate showed good richness and complexity, but it did not hold up till the end of the evening. It was a Mahler-Besse bottling. 92+

1966 vintage

Fantastic wine! Great classical palmer nose - fruits, chocolate, tobacco leaf, barnyard, great animalistic notes. Very silky. A little bit not enough acidity and not enough pressure on the palate. That makes it not perfect. 97 honest points.

1990 vintage

Very nice! Lots of ripe dark fruit... dense, elegant and silky.

1990 vintage

Very good, but falling just short of great, Palmer. This bottle felt relatively primary, and I'm not sure if that was due to a lack of a decanter or bottle variation, but this needed more coaxing than expected for a 35 year old wine to bring out some secondary notes. Lots of fresh red berries, dark chocolate, and some notes of licorice before giving way to earthy minerality and good structure. Enjoyable bottle but definitely not at the level of …

1990 vintage

This needs a lot of air to lose its harsher tones. I gave this 3 hours, but it needed time in the glass to settle, and I would recommend 5 or 6 hours in the decanter before drinking. The nose is classic Palmer, and is deep and sensuous with blackcurrant and cherry notes. Surprisingly, the Merlot constituency of the wine doesn't carry through to the palate and finish, and it more resembles a Paulliac. There is excellent balance and decent …

1990 vintage

must x candy land

1990 vintage

Surprisingly good. Ripe red and black fruit, mostly resolved, both perfumed and rustic with sous bois and some of that lead pencil. Sweet. Straightforwardly enjoyable, not terribly complex but solid and I would also say indicative of Margaux softness and elegance (for Bordeaux). No grippy tannin.

1990 vintage

Excellent drinking window right now. Tannins are fully resolved. Blackberry top notes. Refined yet and an earthy/mushroom bottom. Strong umami with dark chocolate and red vine to round out the medium-long finish. Lovely to pair with a clean Japanese beef nabe. Would drink more if it wasn't so pricey!

1990 vintage

Chateau Palmer 1955- 2020 tasted blind : Cloudy garnet with an amber rim. Intense nose jumping from the glass with tertiary notes of leather, coffee, and game, with a touch of Brett adding complexity rather than dominating. The palate is fresh and structured, a little light and advanced for the vintage, but then again it is 35 years old and has a lot of Merlot in it. I liked it much more than the group. 94+

1990 vintage

20 Vintages of Palmer (1955-2020) : All wines tasted blind. Not decanted. One would expect Palmer with its 40%+ Merlot blend to showcase finesse, delicate tannins, Margaux florality, and bright red berries. That wasn’t the case. Until the more recent vintages, the wines often felt too angular and muscular, with tannin quality below expectations for a wine of this renown. From 2015 onward, the tannic frames improved, but the wines leaned too sweet, too ripe, and almost Napa-esque. Not overripe, …

1990 vintage

Has a touch of meaty funk at first, but really gets going with air. Still very fresh, with a core of cassis. There’s a touch of leather and spice and some tobacco and capsicum. It is rich and layered and the delightful scent of violets appears as you work more air into the wine. Great balance and detail with length to burn.

1990 vintage

Austere with some soft but acidic light blackberry and some cherry; lean elegant finish.

1990 vintage

Second wine of the night at Cashel House, County Galway. I once drank this en primeur and thought it had a great future to look forward to and over thirty years later we had the fortune to prove it. Voluptuous with a long finish. A rare treat.

1990 vintage

Another bottle from a different case. High shoulder fill, which was better than the last. Slightly fresher, but still, the fruit was dried out.

1966 vintage

An Epic Summer Wine Weekend - Year 3; 6/28/2024-6/30/2024 (Muskoka, Ontario, Canada) : [Tasted Single Blind] This pours medium ruby in the glass with medium bricking. This is immediately is expressive and super complex showing tobacco, farmyard, cedar, dark cherry, celery seed, charcoal, and just a hint of burnt orange peel. What a gorgeous and appealing nose. On the palate the entry is on gravelly and rich fruit. The tannin is silky and medium minus with medium plus acid. Really …

1990 vintage

Way better than the last bottle. Ripe red fruit, earth, tobacco. Great energy.

1990 vintage

Lovely mature wine that ultimately lacks the complexity and depth of the 1989 but still stands on its own as a classic Margaux with character. Far from over the hill, my bottle was in great shape and was quite primary for the first 2 hours after opening, really opening up after that and showing the violet and earthy characters of the Medoc. Not cheap by any means right now but certainly worth your time if you can get your hands …

1990 vintage

Fading, so this is not a bottle for further aging. If it has been well stored, you can still find truffles, cedar, tobacco, spice, and cherries in the nose. On the palate, the wine is firm, regal, and spicy, with a bright, earthy, red berry finish. This is not a wine for further aging. Drink from 2024-2028.

1966 vintage

Barely alive.

1966 vintage

Lovely, sweet cassis fruit. A hint of leather and tar and some gorgeous florals (think violets). Good depth and silky of texture. A suggestion of tobacco and earth. Perfect balance and length of flavour is excellent.

1990 vintage

I gave it a two hour decant but it might have needed more - initially the aromas were pretty funky. I don't drink much mature Bordeaux - and so perhaps am not the best judge- but this didn't strike me as particularly impressive or emotionally engaging in any component. Mid weight. Pleasant. I expected more. Just a single bottle bought on release - because even in 1992 Burgundy and the Rhone seemed to me where it was at. Palmer is …

1990 vintage

50th Birthday Bash - night #2 : Phenomenal wine. This might now be my favorite bottle of wine from the 1966 vintage, even above Chateau Latour. This was liquid perfection. For me, this ranked #2 WOTN behind the '90 Margaux and ahead of the '59 Mouton. Amazing high toned red fruit in this wine. Wow!

1966 vintage

Awfully disjointed and muddy when first opened. It reorganized for about an hour thereafter to display a bit of Palmer blue and blackberry fruit, then gradually fell apart again. But never more than a shadow of the magnificence that was 1966 Palmer a decade or two ago.

1966 vintage

Mid-shoulder fill. Healthy ruby with fading rim. Classic cedar, mulberry nose with a dash of green herbs. Beautiful medium weight, surprisingly sweet mixed fruit, excellent acidity, and gentle remaining tannins. Excellent and a wonder (not to mention a great treat) at almost 60 years of age.

1966 vintage

Weekend with Friends and Wine; 9/3/2023-9/4/2023 (Asian Spice House - Buchanan MI) : Mature black fruit and cassis, nicely spiced, certainly ripe. Very enjoyable now, unlikely further upside.

1990 vintage

From the same cellar that gave me one of my first moments with Bordeaux in general and the same wine. This again was just stunning. Decanted for sediment and rebottled and brought to the restaurant and it was really something. Light and gentle and almost a hint of that burgundy style. It's less fruit and more secondary but just done so well. A truly compelling wine. Great.

1966 vintage

Developed dark aromas with leather, rusty iron and iodine, and not the floral Margaux aromas I have had in previous bottles. A slightly bitter finish suggests that this was not a 100 % perfect bottle.

1990 vintage

Middag med venner : Mørk frukt mot moreller og solbær, strukturert vin som har en del tannin fremdeles, kjøttfull, meget lang og aldeles strålende finish.

1966 vintage

Another enjoyable bottle. Dusty at first, but sweet dark fruit, leather and earth after 90min.

1990 vintage

Pulled the cork on the first bottle and prepared to decant. Was confronted with plenty of barnyard funk, etc. that I set it aside and decanted a second bottle for the P-U La Paulee. That was very solid with earth, tobacco, and spice but lacking in fruit. Nonetheless, a lovely aged Margaux. Am I ever glad I set aside the first bottle. A day later I poured it at home with grilled ahi and Marina crab cakes. Not the greatest …

1990 vintage

Not much has changed since I had this 8 years ago. Wonderful balance and sweet dark fruit emerges after about 90min.

1990 vintage

Wine Workshop: Chateau Palmer (Benoit) : Awesome. Similar to the 2000 and 2001 debate we had a few flights ago. This was just super - all dark fruit, very juicy in style, beautiful style of wine. I really enjoyed it. A lot of people were blown away by the '89 but I'm not sure I can say which is the better wine. Both delicious.

1990 vintage

Wine Workshop: Chateau Palmer (Benoit) : And now we are into the super flight. This was one of the first Bordeaux that I ever had an 'aha' moment with and so it's a wine that holds a special place. It's a wow wine again - more dried fruits, intense style, vibrant and drinking great. A nice way to ease into these last four wines that are so special.

1966 vintage

blind A bit short in the finish, but tertiary aromas combined with some left black currant aromas. I guessed BX from the sixties. 91-92

1966 vintage

Couleur orangée, presque transparente. Premier nez fruité, vite remplacé par du cuir, de l'iode, du cheval, une touche forestière, du tabac. Un nez complexe et enchanteur. Avec un peu d'aération, le fruit mûr ressurgit - des cerises noirs qui donnent au nez une touche presque sucrée - et s'intègre parfaitement avec les arômes de cuir et de tabac. Une combinaison extraordinaire. Attaque ample, une bouche tertiaire, de champignons. Des tanins très fins, du velour. Belle acidité. Finit minéral, avec une …

1966 vintage

I'm almost lost in amazement with this wine and it is totally beyond any expectation, but I had read that this was a dark horse overshadowed by the 1961. I had the the 1961 from a magnum last new year's eve and this was better. The nose is meaty and leathery with raisin and tell tale hints of violet. The palate is tertiary and is liquid silk, but still has a good tannic note which is so perfectly balanced it …

1966 vintage

RZ's Bordeaux Seconds (Hawksmoor Guildhall) : What a treat and how kind of I to share this. Earthy - a hint of bouillon on the nose. Fully resolved - a solid core which is neither based on acid nor tannin - dare one say a musary claret.

1966 vintage

Grande pranzo “vecchi bordeaux” con 6 bottiglie di Palmer (59, 66, 78, 83, 85, 89), 3 di Margaux (59, 83, 85), 1 leoville poyferre (59) e 1 grand puy lacoste (61). La 66 di Palmer è la vincitrice della batteria, un vino fantastico, perfetto nel suo caleidoscopio di aromi, che cominciano come un Pinot nero, si vegetalizzano, toccano ambiti di sottobosco e tabacco, volano verso l’affumicatura e chiudono con la canfora. Bocca perfetta, lunga, bottiglia indimenticabile.

1966 vintage

Last bt from yhe sale auction lot, foil cut to reveal cork. Pnp, rim is pale brick and crimson core. Nose is gorgeously earthy, leather, mushroom and floral. Inital palate is leaning to acidic, but after some airing, the wine gathered muscle, becomes more concentrated, good acidity with fully resovled tannin, power without weight, there are still fruits from mid palate to a long finish. A gem.

1966 vintage

Weekend in Westport; 8/25/2021-8/29/2021 (Westport, CT) : This was one of my most favorite of the evening. The fill wasn't necessarily great, but it didn't matter at all. There's a black fruit velvet nature to this. Really delicious wine.

1966 vintage

Very enjoyable, and I would not have thought this was a 50 plus-year-old bottle. Dark fruit, tobacco with some amount of spice on the finish. Lacking a bit of finesse of the best juice.

1966 vintage

It’s not every day we get to drink a very old wine that has been cellared appropriately since it was produced, but tonight was our lucky night. The cork was very hard to extract—dry and then it broke off in bits, but we decanted with a filter and drank it about 30 minutes later. We agree it was thin at first but as it breathed a bit it came into its own. Leathery with some soy and tobacco but also …

1966 vintage

It’s not often that a 54 year old wine improves after several hours of air. At first it was too thin, too acidic and meager of texture. The top note of mint was attractive though, modest as it was. Gradually, it deepened in color, the texture thickened and best of all, it got sweeter. The fairly prominent old leather receded a bit. Still, not that complex and more interesting than delicious and clearly past it’s best.

1966 vintage

Looks well, transparent, and smells clean. Ripe cherry, leather, touch of autumnal fruit, forest floor. Spice, liquorice. A hint of metallic - but on the right side of old winey. Far more aged than a bottle a year of so back which was more opaque and deeper.

1966 vintage

This was way off. Very light with orange, pink and brown. Volatile acidity and weird tropical aromas. No tannins; it had all fallen out. Banana peel and vinegar. Shame.

1966 vintage

drank tonight with my friend the Chateau Palmer lover. Drank next to the 59. This eas a little thinner next to the 59. But still a great bottle. Bravo Chateau Palmer.

1966 vintage

Late release Mahler Besse bottle. Very youthful with gravel, truffle, perfume and currant. Prefer the original release bottle that gave that old claret charm. I imagine an hour plus of slow ox could have brought out more from the wine. 92+

1966 vintage

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Chateau Palmer 3eme Cru Classe, Margaux

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