Château Palmer is currently on-song. It has hit top marks in virtually every vintage in the past decade. The 2015 continues this run of form in an exceptional way. There is no doubt that the growing season and rainfall pattern in September favoured the Margaux appellation over everywhere else in the Médoc. Many properties here have made some of their best ever wines. At Palmer they have produced a powerful Margaux that easily rivals 2009 and 2010. It may even surpass them. The fruit qualities are glorious. Despite the concentration there is harmony and a tannic structure that is remarkably supple. It is the classic iron fist in a velvet glove.

Margaux has had a good to very good vintage in 2014. It vies with 2012 as being the best year here since 2010. The quality is not quite as outstanding as it is further north in the Haut-Médoc [St Estèphe, for example has produced wines that rival 2010] but I was still impressed with many of the wines in Margaux for their balance and elegance. Things feel significantly more homogeneous here than in the past in what remains a very heterogeneous and large appellation. Out side of Château Margaux and Château Palmer I was very impressed with Château Brane Cantenac, Château Giscours, Château Lascombes, Château Marquis de Terme and Château Rauzan-Ségla. There are good efforts too from Château Angludet, Château Cantenac Brown, Château Kirwan, Château Labégorce, Château Malescot Saint-Exupéry, Château Rauzan Gassies and Château Siran.

Château Palmer has been amongst the very best wines Bordeaux has made in the last three vintages [2011, 2012 and 2013]. Obviously the expectation was that Palmer should really deliver the goods in 2014 given the beautiful Indian summer that saved the growing season. Certainly Palmer 2014 has depth and length, with plenty of rich fruit and density on the palate. It is also proportional and tightly focused. Still whether it is the best vintage here since 2010 remains a tricky question, less because of the undoubted quality of the wine, but more because Palmer succeeded remarkably well in 2011 and 2012. Alter Ego, the more forward expression of Palmer’s terroir, is an admirable effort in 2014. It has lots of enjoyable black cherry tones and that pretty, enticing Margaux perfume.

The Margaux appellation has struggled more than most in 2013. A great many wines tasted at the Union des Grand Crus tasting were in a kind of no-man’s land. The delicate fruit tones of 2013 had been worked too much in quite a few cases, rendering them chewy and extracted yet with puckering levels of acidity. Some very good wines have still been made. I’ve posted separately on Château Margaux and Château Palmer. Both stand out as beacons of hope but neither are what you might call affordable. Elegant efforts from Château Angludet, Château Giscours and Château du Tertre are pure and vigorous and worth considering if you’re a Margaux fan [like me]. Château Rauzan-Ségla and Château Brane-Cantenac, Château d’Issan and Château Lascombes, should also work out well too. The disappointments seem more to do with approaches to the vintage in the cellar as much as the problems that 2013 presented itself. In some respects many of the Margaux wounds are self-inflicted.