Château Palmer 2014

The harvest of the 2014 vintage came to a close on Tuesday, October 14 in bright sunshine, which accompanied us throughout September, after playing hide-and-seek during the summer. The season got off to an auspicious start: a good winter arRosé enabled the soils to renew their Réserves in water, followed by a spring when flowering went off without a hitch, despite a slight coulure on the older Merlot vines. At this stage, hopes were high for the quality of this new vintage.

However, from July onwards, the weather became unstable, and the vines concentrated on their foliage to the detriment of the grapes. August was not much better, with slow veraison and berry growth. Fortunately, the sun finally came out in the autumn. September's exceptional weather conditions gradually altered the profile of 2014. The véraison gap between vines faded, and berry size decreased, concentrating all the constituent elements of this new vintage: sugar, anthocyanin and tannin contents increased.

On September 22, the first plot, a young Merlot vine, was harvested. The particularly clement weather enabled the grapes to be harvested at perfect ripeness and without botrytis pressure. In the vat room, innovation took pride of place: after two years of experimenting with reducing the amount of sulfur in our wines, we decided to stop sulfiting the harvest, allowing the grapes to immediately express their complexity. At this stage, the wines of the 2014 vintage admirably reflect the diversity of the estate's parcels. Each personality is expressed in these two blends as if a veil had been lifted, which is undoubtedly one of the first results of our biodynamic approach.