Chateau Palmer - Philippe Delfaut 

Harvest Chronicles at Chateau Palmer - Margaux

September 29th, 2004, at  Chateau Palmer - 100% pure merlot juice
After spending the morning in the Merlot vines with the Palmer Château's team, they were initiated to winery tasks and tasted the first must, which is so fruity and rich in sugar, and very promising. They ended their day tasting a few vintages. At Chateau Palmer, we are in fact currently harvesting from the property's best Merlot patches. Fifty days have elapsed since the veraison and have led to an ideal maturity. The juice is rich and concentrated, the coating is supple and highly coloured with non-aggressive tannins.

Pumping over on the very next day after the first harvests revealed a bright red juice very rich in sugar and with an omnipresent fruity character. These pure Merlot juices, which have only just been pressed and vatted, are already revealing their personalities, which vary greatly depending on which plot they're from. They are always surprising at first sight, much like the juices produced from vines on the "La Chevalière" and "La Pièce Chai" plots, which are, despite the differences, next to each other. A visitor tasting them will wonder why La Chevalière produces such a refined and complex must, while La Pièce Chai produces something more structured and extremely powerful, when the soils appear to be identical. There are in fact differences in the structure of the subsoil, which are only revealed by pedological analysis.

It was in the days leading up to the harvest, while tasting the fruit, that we decided, at Chateau Palmer, to proceed with two different vinifications in separate vats. This is an excellent method, which helps us make the right choices for the most appropriate harvest technique. We spend some time at this every day, and it really is the first tasting of the "primeur" Palmer or Alter Ego.

October 5th, 2004 at Chateau Palmer - Last of the Merlot, first of the Cabernet
The first part of the harvest at Chateau Palmer is drawing to an end with the last of the Merlot vines to the west of the Route des Châteaux. The summery conditions over the past 3 days have enabled these plots to finish ripening. As the days go by it is becoming clear that the 2004 harvest is extremely even, both with respect to the bunches on any individual vine and with respect to the vines on any particular plot. The earliness of the terroir at Chateau Palmer seems to be the only factor affecting the maturity, and this has therefore been guiding our harvesting strategy. The end result is that we were able to harvest the Merlot in no rush over 9 days with a few breaks.

These summery days have been doubly beneficial in that the Cabernet Sauvignon also needed time to complete the maturation of the tannins in the skins, even if the tannins in the seeds were ripe a fortnight ago. While tasting the fruit this morning it became clear that the first of the Cabernet vines on the hilltop bordering the Chateau Palmer have progressed hugely and that they are close to optimal conditions. The skins have become supple and soft, their tannins are silky and consistent. We should be able to start picking them on Thursday.

While the grapes are being picked in relative tranquility, the vat-house team at Chateau Palmer has been buzzing with activity carrying out the tasks of the winemaking process according to the choices made for each plot. Temperature, pumping over, extraction... all of these parameters are monitored and adjusted daily after tasting each vat. The smell of fermentation in the vat-house of Chateau Palmer is enchanting and, as in the vines, there is a high-spirited atmosphere which describes well the feeling of optimism we have for this 2004 vintage.

October 12th, 2004 at Chateau Palmer - The harvest draws to an end!
The harvest, at Chateau Palmer started on September 27th and will have lasted for 3 weeks! This Wednesday marks the end of the harvest with the teams from outside. Only a late plot remains to be harvested, and our own workers will take care of it once the grapes have reached their optimal ripeness. An important characteristic of this year's vintage at Chateau Palmer is that the Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes ripened in very different manners despite the closeness of their respective veraisons. I think that 2004 at Chateau Palmer will be first and foremost a terroir vintage, and that it will become a winemaker's vintage if the winemaker was able to understand the multiple facets of his land.

Here at Chateau Palmer, the huge amount of effort put into controlling the amount of foliage on the vines and regulating the number of bunches on each vine, and therefore the yield, in July, at Chateau Palmer will have played an important part in allowing each plot to achieve full potential. This year more than previous years, we tailored the vinification for individual plots because the soil, subsoil and topography played a major role, which we demonstrated while tasting the fruit on the vines. That is when the winemaker or the œnologist really starts making the wine.

The fermentation is going well in the vat-house at Chateau Palmer. Must of the merlots have finished fermenting by now and are undergoing a slow and controlled maceration. Their composition reminds me more and more of 2002's concentrated, full-bodied and powerful wines, well-balanced and therefore rather classic. 

The Cabernets are just beginning to ferment at Chateau Palmer and we have great expectations for them given how ripe the skins are - as well as the seeds. The seeds often ripen with difficulty with these late vintages but this year, curiously enough, they were ripe before the skins, which is rather rare.

The year, at  Chateau Palmer is drawing to an end for the winemaker. Meanwhile, the new vintage at Chateau Palmer is developing in our winery and receiving all of our attention.

Once again at Chateau Palmer, the harvest comes to an end with everyone in good spirits. There was only one rainy day, yesterday, and we're finishing on October 13th like we did in 1983 (we started a day earlier this year), another late vintage which was a success at Chateau Palmer! 

Philippe Delfaut - Chateau Palmer

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