2014 Château Palmer | Release 2024

The 2014 Palmer has an attractive bouquet with red berry fruit, cedar, undergrowth and veins of blue fruit. This opens nicely in the glass, but I certainly would not classify it as one of Palmer's more opulent aromatics. The palate is medium-bodied with powdery tannins, mainly red fruit intermixed with white pepper, cedar and orange rind. Linear in style, this is a Palmer that doesn't want to show off and remains within the limitations of the growing season. It should offer another 20 years of drinking pleasure. Tasted blind at the Southwold 10-Year-On tasting.

- Neal Martin (02/2024)

This really develops wonderfully in the glass starting out earthy with mushrooms and spices and then turns to dark fruit such as blackberries and blackcurrants. Full-bodied, very intense and minerally. Firm and silky tannins and a long, long finish. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink in 2022. (02/2017)

The 2014 Palmer is up with the crème de la crème of the vintage and should merit an even higher score in 5-7 years. A blend of 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot and the rest Petit Verdot brought up in 65% new French oak, its deep ruby/purple-tinged color is followed by a rich, opulent bouquet of blackcurrants, black cherries, chocolate, and tobacco, with hints of graphite and background oak. With more texture and mid-palate depth than most in the vintage, this terrific 2014 is medium to full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, layered and as hedonistic and sexy as it gets in the vintage. Give bottle 4-5 years and it should drink nicely for two decades. (11/2017)

Deep garnet-brick in color, the 2014 Palmer features evocative scents of stewed plums, blackberry preserves, and garrigue with hints of leather, Indian spices, and underbrush. The medium to full-bodied palate is chock full of black fruit preserves and exotic spice notes framed by plush tannins, finishing long and opulent. (03/2024)

This has a fresh, energetic feel, with lots of bramble-edged grip pushing the core of raspberry, plum and cherry coulis flavors. The finish is very pure, punctuated by lively floral and iron notes. Flaunts minerality in the end. Best from 2020 through 2035.

- J.M.

The 2014 Palmer builds on the promise that it showed in barrel. It is clearly a more understated and nuanced Palmer from winemaker Thomas Duroux this year, but a Margaux with exquisite delineation and precision, hints of blackberry, boysenberry and a touch of pencil box. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannin. It feels supple and lithe in the mouth. It will not have the depth and power of the subsequent 2015 Palmer, yet the "flow" is very sensual and the Merlot (45% of the blend) just lends it roundness and a caressing texture. What a beautiful Margaux and I bet it will be deceptively long-lived.

- Neal Martin (03/2017)