Chateau Palmer 2016

The general who lost everything

Before it was Palmer, the land was the Domaine de Gascq, whose owners, councillors at the Parlement of Bordeaux, made light clairet wines that were served at Versailles. On June 16, 1814, Charles Palmer, a British major-general, aide-de-camp to the Prince Regent and member of Parliament for Bath, bought it from a de Gascq widow for 100,000 francs, 60,000 of it in cash, plus a yearly allowance of 500 liters of wine.

Palmer did more than buy a chateau. Between 1816 and 1831 he bought land across Cantenac, Issan and Margaux and stitched it into an estate of 163 hectares, 82 of them under vine, which he named after himself. He mostly lived in Bath and left the work to a merchant and a manager. Wikipedia recounts that the Prince Regent once praised the wine with a line from Romeo and Juliet about a 'holy Palmer's kiss,' before a rival had it served beside anchovy sandwiches.

The venture ruined him. Deep in debt, Palmer had to sell to a mortgage bank in 1843, and he died on April 17, 1851, in a rented London apartment with no fortune left. Four years later his estate was ranked a Third Growth in the 1855 classification.

Bankers, merchants and a farming revolution

In 1853 the bankers Emile and Isaac Pereire, builders of French railways and of the resort of Arcachon, bought the estate and its 83-hectare vineyard and hired the architect Charles Burguet to build the turreted chateau that stands today. In 1917 the composer Claude Debussy ordered two cases of the 1909. After more than eighty years, the Pereire heirs sold in 1938 to four Bordeaux trade families. From 1950 the Ginestet and then the Miailhe families sold their shares, leaving the Mahler-Besse and Sichel families, who still own Palmer.

Palmer's style comes partly from an unusual amount of Merlot for the Medoc. In the 1920s Merlot was only 3% of the vineyard; from the 1940s Louis Miailhe planted it widely on the clay-rich parcels, raising it to 60% before Jean Bouteiller brought it back to 47% in the 1950s, where it has stayed. The Chardon family managed the vines across generations, and Bertrand Bouteiller ran the chateau until 2004.

That year the shareholders hired Thomas Duroux, an agronomist and enologist who had worked in Tuscany at Ornellaia among other places. He mapped some twenty terroir types in the vineyard and moved Palmer toward biodynamics: trials on a one-hectare plot from 2009, a decision to convert the whole vineyard in 2014, and Demeter certification in 2018. Cattle, pigs, sheep and goats arrived at the end of 2014 to supply compost, and in late 2016 the estate planted its first hundred fruit trees among the vines.

2016: mildew, drought and a late harvest

The estate's vintage report describes a very mild winter that put the vines a week ahead of schedule, followed by a mild, wet spring with 130 millimeters of rain in a single month. Those are ideal conditions for mildew, and Palmer says it had never faced such pressure since adopting biodynamic farming. The vineyard team held on.

Flowering came in good conditions during the week of June 6. Summer was moderate and dry enough to worry the team about its most sensitive plots, until some welcome rain fell. Harvest began only on October 3 and ran to October 18, among the latest in Palmer's history. The crop was modest, but the grapes were intensely aromatic and the tannins powerful and fully ripe, so the cellar chose a more intense extraction.

The final blend was 47% Merlot, 47% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Petit Verdot, almost exactly the makeup of the vineyard. 'When the final blend reflects the varietal composition of the vineyard, nothing has had to be forced,' Duroux says in the estate's 2026 retrospective. Jeb Dunnuck reported 65% new French oak, and Decanter noted that Palmer made its highest-ever proportion of grand vin in 2016.

A perfect score and a second release

Critics put the 2016 among Palmer's greatest wines. Jeb Dunnuck gave it 100 points, calling it the finest vintage he had tasted from the estate, surpassing 2009 and 2010, and predicting it would keep for half a century. Wine Enthusiast also gave 100 and named it a Cellar Selection. The Wine Advocate rated it 98+, and Decanter and James Suckling 98. Wine Spectator was cooler, at 94.

Palmer priced its futures boldly. On May 19, 2017, Wine Spectator reported a release at 240 euros ex-negociant, 14% above the 2015, with top U.S. retailers offering it at $305 a bottle. The magazine's reviewer was cautious about Margaux price rises that year but called the Palmer one of the few 2016 Margaux wines equal in quality to its 2015.

Ten years on, Palmer sold the wine again. On September 9, 2026, the estate re-released the 2016 from its own cellars through the Bordeaux trade, a year after doing the same with the 2015. Colin Hay of The Drinks Business scored it 99 and called it as good a recent Palmer as he could recall. Two U.S. shops listed the vintage as sold out when checked in October 2026.

The Margaux that drinks like Pomerol

Wikipedia describes Palmer as one of the two most prominent Third Growths, and credits its high Merlot share with a velvety texture closer to Pomerol than to its Cabernet-led neighbors. The vineyard covers 66 hectares within a 100-hectare estate on gravel ridges with more clay than is usual in Margaux. Annual production of the grand vin is around 100,000 bottles.

Since 1998 Palmer has also made Alter Ego, a separate wine from the same terroirs, and since 2004 it has revived a 19th-century Bordeaux custom with Historical XIXth Century Wine, a blend of Palmer with a little northern Rhone Syrah. A white wine from nearly forgotten grapes, first made in 2007, followed the rediscovery of two bottles of the estate's 1925 white in its cellars.

The numbers

Vineyard

66 ha of vines in a 100 ha estate; planted roughly half Merlot, half Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot

Production

Around 100,000 bottles of grand vin a year; the 2016 crop was modest, with the highest-ever share going to the grand vin

2016 blend

47% Merlot, 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot

Jeb Dunnuck

100

Wine Enthusiast

100, Cellar Selection

Wine Advocate

98+

Decanter

98

James Suckling

98 (10-years-on retrospective)

Vinous

97

Wine Spectator

94

Timeline

1. Jun 16, 1814

   Charles Palmer buys the Domaine de Gascq for 100,000 francs and a yearly allowance of wine.

2. 1831

   Palmer completes his buying, reaching 163 hectares including 82 of vines.

3. 1843

   In debt, Palmer is forced to sell the estate.

4. Apr 17, 1851

   Charles Palmer dies in London without a fortune.

5. 1853

   The Pereire brothers buy the estate and commission the present chateau.

6. 1855

   Palmer is ranked a Third Growth.

7. 1917

   Claude Debussy orders two cases of the 1909.

8. 1938

   Four Bordeaux trade families, including the Mahler-Besse and Sichel families, buy Palmer.

9. 1998

   Alter Ego is launched.

10. 2004

    Thomas Duroux becomes managing director.

11. 2009

    Biodynamic trials begin on a one-hectare plot.

12. 2014

    The shareholders approve converting the whole vineyard to biodynamics.

13. Oct 3, 2016

    Harvest begins; it ends October 18.

14. 2016

    The first hundred fruit trees are planted among the vines at year's end.

15. May 2017

    The 2016 is released as futures at 240 euros ex-negociant.

16. 2018

    Palmer receives Demeter biodynamic certification.

17. Sep 9, 2026

    Palmer re-releases the 2016 from its own cellars.

The world in 2016

• Jan 28, 2016

  The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virus.

• Jun 10, 2016

  France opens the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament, later won by Portugal.

• Jun 23, 2016

  The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union.

• Jul 13, 2016

  Theresa May becomes prime minister of the United Kingdom.

• Aug 5, 2016

  The Summer Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro.

• Nov 8, 2016

  Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Chateau Palmer 2016 is number 79 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (57 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Charles Palmer paid for the estate partly with 500 liters of wine a year for the seller's life.
• The man who gave Palmer its name died broke in a rented London apartment before it was classified.
• Claude Debussy ordered two cases of Palmer 1909 in 1917.
• Palmer's Merlot share once reached 60%, rare for the Medoc, before settling at about 47%.
• In spring 2016 Palmer had 130 millimeters of rain in one month, the worst mildew pressure since it went biodynamic.
• Palmer keeps Bordelaise cattle, a nearly extinct local breed, to make compost for its vines.
• The 2016 blend almost exactly mirrors the grape mix planted in the vineyard.