Tour of Medoc Wine Region Part 1: Chateau Palmer

On Thursday, October 12th, we left the city of Bordeaux for a tour of the Medoc wine region with an outfit called 'Bordeaux Vertigo.' Some friends of ours from Santa Barbara had recommended this company and, more specifically, they recommended the founder, Bogdan Ghita. Bogdan is an enthusiastic, gracious, and knowledgeable tour guide. He picked us up at 9 am in the center of Bordeaux, and then off we went for our first tour at Chateau Palmer at 10 am.

On our way to the Medoc region, Bogdan gave us a detailed history of the region and explained more than I will ever remember about the unique qualities of this region. We were going to be spending our day on the Left Bank of the Gironde. This is where some of the most famous (and expensive) Bordeaux wines can be found. Though we have rarely ever tasted any of these wines, the names were familiar-- names like Margaux, Lafite Rothschild, Haute Brion and Latour! These wines are all very expensive and hard to find.

We were starting at Chateau Palmer because . . . well . . . duh! We liked the name. Chateau Palmer is not as famous or expensive as the first growth wines mentioned above, but it is also very well known and very expensive. We have a little family history with this wine. I am not sure if I am related to General Charles Palmer (the founder), but who knows? He was English and bought the winery back in 1840. But seriously, we have been drinking this wine ever since my father first poured it for us over 40 years ago. Dad has a nice collection of Chateau Palmer in his cellar and every once in a while he doles it out to the next generation (we're talking one bottle per year)!

The label is iconic and it features a black background and a rendering of the original Chateau building, which remains and is in great shape.

Our tour guides, Emma and Melody, met us at 10 am at the winery and the first thing we did was head out into the vineyards . . .

There was some heavy fog this morning, but still beautiful to be there . . . 

Emma and Melody explained to us that Chateau Palmer is now very focused on 'Biodynamic' techniques for farming the grapes. This is worth a whole separate blog entry. Let's just say that 'Biodynamic' is similar to 'Organic' but even more involved.

After the tour of the vineyard, we got to see the facility up close:

This is where they separate out the grapes

This is one of the large, stainless steel vats

These are the barrels we got to taste directly from . .  

We learned that Chateau Palmer is somewhat unusual compared to other wines on the left bank in that it includes a higher percentage of Merlot. Chateau Palmer includes about 40 percent Merlot and 60 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. There may have been a small percentage of Petite Verdot as well, but mainly Merlot and Cab.

After the tour of the facility, well then it was time for the tasting . . . .

As you can see from the photo above, we were offered three wines to taste: a 2013 Chateau Palmer, a 2008 Chateau Palmer and a 2013 Chateau Palmer 'Alter Ego.' The 'Alter Ego' is a less expensive wine that they have recently introduced. When I say less expensive, I mean it's only 100 Euros per bottle compared to the 300 Euros for the real McCoy!

The Alter Ego gives the winemaker a chance to try some different things with the grapes and offer a less expensive wine to the public. We liked all three of the wines, but we would have to admit that the Alter Ego agreed with our California wine palates a bit more than the mother label. We got to try these wines directly from the barrels in the earlier part of our tour, which was pretty special.

All in all we spent more than 2 hours at Chateau Palmer and we will never forget it. They only do tours by appointment and only on weekdays and they charge more for the tour than other wineries. But I think it was WELL WORTH IT!