There's no rest for our vineyard workers who, as soon as harvest had finished and the first cold days arrived, started the autumn and winter work on Château Palmer's 55 hectares of vineyards. Their tasks are carried out with great care but always in the interest of efficiency so that everything will be ready for the awakening of the vines in the spring. A balance perfectly mastered by our vineyard workers.
 
Pruning:
Pruning is of capital importance. Its completion will not only directly influence the upcoming vintage, but also the production of the vine for years to come. Just as in the art of pruning a bonsai, pruning the vine also requires a thorough know-how that involves rigorous training to master the technique. Our more experienced vineyard workers pass their knowledge on to the new arrivals.
At Château Palmer we use the "médocaine" pruning method, in which each vine stock is left with one "cane" (a long branch) on both sides of the trunk.  
At present, the Merlot vines are pruned.  Our vineyard workers will now begin pruning the Cabernet Sauvignon vines, a variety at high risk for vine diseases and needing to be pruned as late as possible.
This task has always been entrusted to our most experienced vineyard workers. By late afternoon, Pierre-Alain, Team Leader, invites his 8 coworkers to begin the next plot.
 
Removing the canes:
This operation consists of removing the recently cut canes from the vine supports.  To facilitate this task, the supports from the previous year are taken down with the help of a small billhook.  This traditional cutting tool, simple and efficient, the size of a knife, has a dished blade sharpened on the inside to facilitate cutting the ties.
 
Tying the trunk:
Observing "acanage", or tying the vine trunk to the marking stake, is a unique moment. As the morning mist rises, the sun shines on the orange-colored ties used to maintain the vine trunk upright against the marker.  By a series of skillful movements, the team of vineyard workers with their expert hands, tie the "vime" around the trunk and the wire.  This natural string is a willow twig that grows close to Château Palmer, on the banks of the Garonne River.
 
Training:
Done at the same time as tying the trunk, training is intended to fix the remaining canes to the wires in order to guide the growth of the future vegetation to respect the row.  Jacques Dupin, Vineyard Director, considers the vine a type of wild plant that must be guided, places great emphasis on this work.  The cane must be bent, in the form of an arc, towards the soil. This favors the growth of buds along the entire branch.
 
Replanting:
Our two tractor drivers scrutinize each plot to detect any dead vines.  They are delicately removed and will be replaced by young vine stock in the spring.

Between December and February reigns over the technical team of Château Palmer a studious atmosphere conducive to making an exceptional vintage.  The tasting sessions to prepare the final blend take place during this period.

Magical moments, with measured gestures and refined palates, which allow us to imagine the final structure of Château Palmer and Alter Ego 2011.
 
A play in several acts
 
In order to maintain a certain distance and allow the different batches to continue ageing, the blend tastings take place in several steps.
 
The first act is to blind-taste all of the batches.  Very useful, this tasting session allows our tasters to identify the characteristics of the different parcels and their expressions in a specific vintage without knowing their origin.  A way of leveling the playing field that can lead to some nice surprises.
 
Neither too early nor too late, our tasting committee came together again the following week.  Faced with 33 samples, our refined palates began to take note of the characteristics of each batch.  First the Merlots, then the Cabernets Sauvignons, finishing with the Petits Verdots.
 
Since the beginning of the year our quintet, to be discovered below, has been working on the most meticulous of tastings.  To attribute each batch, in function of its style, its correlation to Château Palmer or Alter Ego.  A delicate decision, the gourmand samples offering an intense fruit will harmonize nicely with the touch of smoothness and roundness found in Alter Ego. What is more difficult is to be able to decipher the potential for ageing that will enter into the partition for Château Palmer.
Listening closely, Olivier Campadieu, our Cellar Master, carefully blends what will be the foundation for each wine.  Not to give away any secrets, but our team seems to have been seduced by some beautiful Merlots.
 
In two weeks time our tasting professionals will come together one or many more times in order to harmonize and give birth to the opus that will best represent Château Palmer's interpretation of the 2011 vintage.
 
A plurality of actors

During these blend tastings, Chateau Palmer brings together a company of experts combining knowledge of the vineyard and experience in fine wines. In order to be perpetually challenged, these actors play a key role in the final debate of assembling the two wines.
 
Sabrina Pernet, our Technical Director, and Thomas Duroux work together. Both are well placed to understand the character of each plot. During the season they roam the vineyards and make decisions concerning winemaking and aging. Choices that will have a direct impact on the outcome of these tastings.
Together they will decide on the nature of the final blend taking into account the views provided by three specialists.

Our team brings in Bertrand Bouteiller, who ran the property for almost forty-two years. A valuable contribution that allows us to preserve the Palmer style over many vintages.
 
Jacques and Eric Boissenot intervene as winemaking consultants. Our two authorities in fine wines of the left bank provide an expert description of each sample.
 
Once the two compositions are finalized, the blending will be carefully preserved until the 2011 Primeurs, taking place in early April. The appointment is made.

It hads become somewhat of a tradition at Château Palmer, and the estate once again decided to welcome several trainees this year.
During their mutually beneficial internship, they acquire know-how and experience, while the technical team will benefit from the experiments performed by these highly motivated future viticulturalists.
 
Twenty-five year old Lucie Lauilhe joined the château's team in March to undertake the work- experience part of her studies. A recent graduate of Montpellier University with a degree in agricultural engineering, Lucie continues her studies towards a Diplôme National d'Oenologie (DNO) in Bordeaux while working in the Palmer vineyard and cellars. A true lover of fine wine, she perfected the cartography of the vineyard begun last year in order to limit the use of chemical inputs.
 
Another trainee, 22 year-old Lorenzo Pasquini, is a dyed-in-the-wool Italian who can spend hours explaining the differences between the Tuscan vineyards and his new second home in the Médoc. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in viticulture and winemaking from the University of Pisa, Lorenzo decided to broaden his experience by training at Château Palmer. This provided ideal practical applications to accompany the DNO studies he is undertaking in Bordeaux. Lorenzo's experiment dealt with the effects of biodynamic viticulture on both the vines and wine at Palmer.
 
Céline Carrion has been in charge of tours at Château Palmer for the past 9 years. She took advantage of the period during which the cellars and winery are closed for renovation to prepare a BTS advanced vocational course in viticulture and winemaking - while applying what she learned at Château Palmer. For example, among her numerous activities, Céline helped in devatting the new wine as well as measuring must density during alcoholic fermentation. Thanks to this hands-on experience, our guide will soon know everything there is to know about winemaking techniques at Château Palmer!
 
While Lucie imagines a future career as a winemaking consultant, Lorenzo dreams of going to Australia or California in order to discover new techniques, very different from those in the Médoc. As for Céline, she will be delighted to welcome you starting in July to take you on a tour of the newly renovated estate.
 
In order to thank our three new future professionals, Château Palmer invited them to a unique meal prepared by our Chef, Olivier Guibault.

The icing on the cake (or, rather, the strawberry parfait in this instance...), was when Thomas Duroux, who hosted the meal, decided to open wines from their birth years.  Château Palmer 1986 and Château Palmer 1989 were thus tasted with enormous pleasure, keeping in mind the challenging, but unforgettable times during the vinification.  
 
We would like to raise a toast to our three trainees, and wish them the best of luck with their careers !

The lowest yields since 1961.
The 2011 harvest is marked by a limited production. Going back through our archives we found that it was the lowest yield since the mythical 1961 vintage (11.8 hL/ha versus 20hL/ha for 2011).
 
A meticulous vintage.
The extra time dedicated to sorting the grapes helped us to preserve the quality of this vintage, allowing us to avoid the consequences of the hazardous weather conditions suffered this year.
In the winery, after analysis, alcohol levels are lower than the 2010 vintage yet the wine shows a surprising acidity.  Due to the combination of adverse weather conditions and a small yield, the berries show an incredible phenolic potential.  In order to preserve these beautiful tannins, we extracted as gently as possible.
Such attention to detail plays a role in the elegance and precision of this Château Palmer 2011.
 
Promising signs to be confirmed.
Malolactic fermentation, which has just begun, will play an essential role in understanding the vintage.  There is an important amount of malic acid this year; its transformation in lactic acid will contribute in perfecting the wine's balance.
The final harmonies of Château Palmer 2011 will be composed during tasting sessions where we will define the blend, beginning mid-December.  It is a delicate composition entrusted to our technical team, fully committed to the completion of the 2011 vintage.

In harvesting this 2011 vintage, we focused on selecting only the best of what the vine gave us.  This year the hailstorm of June 4th, followed by the high temperatures of early summer, resulted in a heterogeneous yield.

For this year's harvest, we chose to use Optical Eye Sorting to help us in our selection.

Our harvesters were responsible for the first sorting phase in the vineyard where they discarded the dried bunches from the crop.

The second phase of selection occurred when the bunches were placed on the sorting table.  On a 6 meter-long table, the sharp eyes and quick hands of our sorting team carefully removed the damaged bunches.

After the berries had been separated from the stems, they continued on to our Optical Eye Sorting machine.  It chose the berries according to our own quality criteria, for a tailor-made selection.  The machine was adjusted to keep only those berries that had a certain degree of ripeness.  The dried or withered berries were removed as well as any remaining leaves or stems.

This constant attention insured that the quality of the harvest was respected.

We also added a second and final sorting table to have one last look at the harvest.

This combination of 3 selection phases, in the vineyard, on the sorting table and by the Optical Eye Sorting machine, allowed us to preserve the qualities of the 2011 harvest and to avoid the climatic hazards experienced this year.

To learn more about our first impressions of this 2011 vintage, we invite you to click here to read an interview with Thomas Duroux, CEO of Château Palmer, done by The Wine Cellar Insider.


The first week of harvest was sunny and warm, which allowed our Belgian and Danish students to spend their weekend discovering the beaches of the Atlantic coast.
This two-day break allowed the last Merlot grapes to round out; some berries needed a little more time to soften the structure of their tannins.

As of today, our harvest team has picked 18ha of Merlot, a variety dear to Château Palmer as it is planted on our grand terroir, giving our wine its distinctive finesse.
By Wednesday, we should have all of the Merlot picked, then sorted, before heading to the fermentation cellar. The Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot will follow.

For the third consecutive year, we've benefited from beautiful weather conditions for harvest: sunny and warm during the day, with cool nights. Unfortunately, many grey clouds darkened the skies this weekend, bringing with them some raindrops and raising fears of the development of Botrytis. But this year at Palmer the yields are quite low, decreasing the risk for the development of this mushroom, responsible for grey rot.

The dry spring, the hailstorm on June 4th and the heat wave at the end of June, played their part in eating away at our harvest yield. The vine has few berries but all of its energy goes into producing the best fruit possible: the grapes picked in 2011 are very rich in phenolic compounds.

In the winery, we currently have 15 tanks fermenting that perfume the fermentation cellar. The first juice is colorful and rich with serious tannins. Alcoholic degrees, very classically, are between 12.5% and 13.8% TAV. Our daily tasting sessions run by the technical direction team allow us to adapt our methods of extraction to respect the character of each parcel.

During the months of April and May, the sun was truly the star of the show, occupying center stage.  Not one drop of water for more than 60 consecutive days!  According to Météo France, this was the driest spring for more than a century, and the hottest in 50 years!  Over these past 2 months, we felt like we were already in the middle of summer.  The sky was deep blue, with warm temperatures of 28°C, and the vine's shoots stretching on endlessly, showing off the fruit of their effort.
 
These two continuous months of sunshine, accompanied by warm weather, allowed the vine to develop at an exceptional speed.  Rarely has flowering been so early, almost 3 weeks ahead of last year (full flowering was between the 9th and the 16th of May), leaving us to believe that harvest may be earlier than usual too.
 
The 2011 vintage already seems to be synonymous with historical vintages for its precociousness.
 
Unfortunately, a strong hailstorm hit our vineyard on the 4th of June.  Not wishing to prejudge the quality of a vintage that this magnificent spring allows us to hope for, we already expect a low yield as a result of the hailstorm. We have since had a few saving rainstorms that allowed the vines to recover their strength, the berries can continue their development, and plump up to a satisfactory size before veraison.
 
After desuckering, our vineyard workers continued the green work in the vineyards and should finish up today with suppressing the secondary shoots, lifting and topping the vines.
 
Now let's wait and see what Summer 2011 has in store for us...

What delicious aromas - for the past several days, the vines are giving off the most refined, subtle, and attractive perfume!

After a trying winter, the first buds appeared a few weeks ago and we are delighted to welcome these ephemeral blossoms and their complex bouquet.

The vines are flowering, and it's pure magic!

Their names are Lobesia botrana and Eupoecilia ambiguella.
They may sound like pretty flowers... but they are actually nasty pests!

These moths produce caterpillars, also known as "grape worms", which do a great deal of damage in the vines. They burrow into the ripening grapes, perforating the skins and fostering the spread of grey rot - a terrible scourge in the vineyards, quite unlike the noble rot in Sauternes.
The best way to protect our precious vines is to prevent the enemy from mating! Small dispensers release synthesised pheromones that disrupt olfactory communication between male and female moths. The males become disoriented, desperately searching for their female alter ego. When they cannot find the females, they become exhausted and give up...

Mating disruption replaces traditional insecticides and is species-specific, so it has no impact on human health and plants and does no harm to beneficial insects, thus maintaining biodiversity.

This inspired Yaron Herman and Michel Portal to dedicate one of the pieces they played at the "Hear 2010" concert to this phenomenon!
Listen to their music as often as you like, on the Hear 2010 section of our website.