25 March 2011 - 13:50. A musical score lying on a table at La Gare Gourmande restaurant, a few kilometres from Margaux. Yaron Herman has just written the final bars of the piece he will be playing with Michel Portal in a few hours' time. Their music has been inspired by everything the artists have seen, smelt, touched, and tasted during their stay at Château Palmer.
On the previous day, the two great jazzmen were walking through the vineyards, guided by Thomas Duroux, who was initiating them into the secrets of each plot. The hardness of the gravel, the softness of the budding leaves, the emotion of the weeping vines, the powerful currents of the Garonne River, flowing just a few metres away ... the magnificent terroir of Palmer, reflected so strongly in our wines.
Next, they tasted the 2010 vintage, starting with the wines made from each individual vineyard plot, then the final blends of Alter Ego and Château Palmer. Our guests were won over - they had understood.
20:00. The concert. Michel Portal and Yaron Herman played a masterly improvisation, full of their feelings, words, emotions, and memories. An amazing duo!
During the 90-minute concert in the ageing cellar, surrounded by ageing barrels full of 2010 Palmer, the musicians focused sometimes on the wines and sometimes on the elements, minerals, and terroirs that they embody - in perfect harmony. The tribute to 2010 Alter Ego took the form of a piano solo by Yaron Herman. The music's expressive freshness, softness, smoothness, and intensity conveyed the character of this wine quite magnificently. 2010 Château Palmer was performed by Michel Portal as a bass clarinet solo. This more intimate piece reflected the emotions of a man's discovery of a great wine. The musician's heavier, deeper tones surrounded us, disturbing and intoxicating us... in a voluptuous trance!
Then Michel Portal played his soprano saxophone inside the piano lid, facing Yaron Herman, in a perfectly-meshed duet. They played a series of pieces, including "La Confisuon Sexuelle des Papillons" ("The sexual confusion of moths"), a highly-poetic set with colourful chords and inspired riffs. The audience was enchanted. Michel Portal and Yaron Herman gave an incredible performance, living each moment of their music to the full and sweeping the audience away with them to another universe. Unforgettable!
Subtlety, harmony, power, balance, and freshness: all these adjectives are equally applicable to the music performed that evening and to our 2010 wines, preview-tasted "en primeur" by the 70 guests at the end of the concert. Musical emotions, olfactory and tasting sensations... a memory that will linger forever at Château Palmer.
PS: we would like particularly to thank:
- Christophe Deghelt, the musicians' manager, who also supported us last year with Jacky Terrasson
- France Musique radio, for broadcasting the concert, making it possible
for a wide audience to share this wonderful experience with us.
In March 2010, the jazz pianist Jacky Terrasson improvised on the theme of the 2009 vintage at a private concert. This was simply amazing. In 2011, a few days before the start of the en primeur campaign, we have decided to celebrate the 2010 vintage in music, and we are very pleased to welcome Michel Portal and Yaron Herman.
Jazz à Palmer : a common philosophy Like jazz, Château Palmer has deep roots, with a long history that has undergone many influences and inspirations and, while traditional, is always open to innovation. This respect for tradition is constantly enhanced by expanding its limits - while remaining faithful to its roots.
Jazz is a blend of tradition and innovation, memory and improvisation, listening and dialogue. Thanks to their musicality and technical expertise, strong artistic connections, and a palpitating atmosphere, the musicians set the scene and perform in total liberty. Wine is the same, combining terroir, climate, grape varieties, science, and technology. However, creating fine wine also takes inspiration, good taste, expertise, and an excellent memory that ties everything together. That is how great wines are made.
Rendezvous on March 25th at 10:30 pm (GMT+1) Michel Portal, one of the greatest clarinettists, and Yaron Herman, an impressive young pianist, will first explore Château Palmer's world, its terroir, its history, its wines - and more specifally the last-born ones, Château Palmer 2010 and Alter Ego 2010. Thanks to this vision, they will interpret and perform the vibrations they feel from the 2010 vintage: its originality, its nuances, and its soul transposed into music on the night of the concert.
Prior to the concert, Alex Dutilh will devote his "Open Jazz" programme to a special "Jazz et Vin" theme, including interviews with Thomas Duroux, Managing Director of Château Palmer, Pierre Gagnaire, chef of the famous three-star restaurant, Estelle Touzet, head sommelier at the Hôtel Meurice, and François Théberge, saxophonist and winegrower.
We have had beautiful, dry, sunny weather since
mid-June and, after three rather demanding vintages, are delighted with the
very low level of fungal disease. In fact, the last real rainy spell goes back
to the 15th and 16th of June, after the Merlot had
finished flowering.
Precipitation since the 1st of April
has been particularly low, with a total of just 147 mm as of the 5th
of August. This is much less than in previous years (for example, the figure
was 267 mm by the same date in 2009). As things now stand, rainfall is
equivalent to that for the 2005 vintage. This lack of rain has obviously meant a reduced
water supply to the vines. The effects are starting to show, with a positive
influence on quality and the synthesis of polyphenols. This situation has also
led us to change our vineyard practices, going on the assumption that
"ploughing once is better than watering twice" (an old saying is all the more appropriate
since it is strictly forbidden to irrigate the vines!). Colour change, or véraison, started at Palmer on the 21st of July. This
got off to a relatively slow start, but has since speeded up, and peak véraison took place on the 5th
of August for Merlot. However, our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes will probably only
reach this stage during the week of August 9th.
After excellent weather in early June, a week of cold and rain in the middle of the month interfered with the end of flowering and the beginning of fruit set. Incomplete fertilisation in some Merlot vines led to millerandage, although it is difficult at this time to evaluate the consequences on the future crop. While coulure (or shot berries, due to the absence of fertilisation) reduces the number of grapes per bunch, millerandage (tiny, aborted berries) necessitates careful sorting at harvest time.
The fairly cool temperatures for the season (less than 11°C) during this rainy period nevertheless protected the vines from mildew.
Manifestations of fungal disease were quite low.
The weather has once again been beautiful for the past two weeks and the grapes are developing well, as illustrated by these photos of the same bunch of Cabernet Sauvignon taken over 6 days in a plot called "La Pièce du Chai".
A second round of tying up is coming to an end and, helped by 50 seasonal workers, our vineyard workers are continuing to remove side shoots, which they started doing in mid-June.
In the cellar, we are preparing to bottle 2008 Alter Ego and 2008 Château Palmer next week.
Jacky Terrasson gave an exceptional concert at the Château on Tuesday, March 23rd. Only hours before launching Futures 2009, with more than a thousand professionals coming to the Château for tastings, Jacky gave us a masterly interpretation of the 2009 vintage of both Château Palmer and Alter Ego.
