Alter Ego de Château Palmer, Margaux, 2024
Upon first approach, this wine presents a rather muted bouquet, offering little in the way of aromatic intrigue. However, the palate reveals a more promising profile. Notes of dark cherry emerge, providing a glimpse of depth and complexity. Unfortunately, the wine lacks the vibrancy and energy one might hope for, finishing with overtly dry tannins.
critic reviews
Deep garnet-purple colored. Opens with evocative scents of wild strawberries, fresh, juicy raspberries, and red currant jelly, leading to hints of cinnamon stick and lavender oil with a waft of anise. The light to medium-bodied palate is bright and breezy with a lively line and fine-grained tannins supporting the red berry flavors, finishing with a mineral lift.
The 2024 Alter Ego is first aged in barrel with 20% new oak and then transferred into 3,000-liter <em>foudres</em>. It has a very pure bouquet, focused and more concentrated than expected with blackcurrant, raspberry, incense and light violet scents. The palate is medium-bodied and fresh with crisp tannins and hints of black olive and fennel. This Alter Ego is leaner and more linear than in warmer seasons. Crisp and taut on the finish, the 2024 will deserve a couple of years in bottle. Very fine.
Finessed aromatics, clear stone fruits, cherry pit, even touch of sage and juicy nectarine among the more classical cassis and blackberry fruits, this is sappy, slate, gunsmoke, good balance with salinity on the finish, enjoyable. 22hl/h yield, mainly from poor fruit set on the old Merlots, so both wines have majority Cabernet Sauvignon. Harvest 25 September to 10 October, 3.7ph. One to look out for, and no need to wait too long.
The 2024 Alter Ego de Palmer is a lovely wine, bursting with aromas of blackcurrants, plums, rose petals and violets. Medium to full-bodied, supple and lively, with a sweet core of fruit, ripe tannins and impressive richness for the vintage, it's a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot and 6% Petit Verdot.