Château Palmer

The château

On June 16, 1814, at a court-ordered sale in Cantenac, Charles Palmer, a cavalry colonel who had never seen the place, signed for Château de Gascq at 100,000 francs and gave it his own name. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, printed it that year in 2 columns, De Gasq the former owner and Palmer the new one, at 5 to 6 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) and with no rank at all. Palmer spent 17 years buying across Cantenac, Issan and Margaux, took in the elder Dubignon’s parcels and reached some 65 hectares of vines before his creditors took everything in 1843. By 1845 Franck had it a fourth growth at 80 to 100 tonneaux, in the hands of the mortgage bank, and Pierre Biarnez, who put the growths of the Médoc into verse in 1849, blamed “an unworthy hand” and “an odious blending” of peasant wines for pushing a noble vineyard down among the artisans.

Émile and Isaac Pereire, the bankers of the French railways, bought it in 1853 for 425,000 francs, the year Franck’s last edition still ranked it a fourth growth. They planted the 20 hectares that took the estate to 85, and in 1854, on the site of the old house, raised the château with its 4 turrets, to plans by Charles Burguet, for 30 years the chief architect of the city of Bordeaux. The next year the brokers made Palmer a Third Growth, 4 years after the colonel had died in London. The Pereires kept the Englishman’s name, and the château they built has been on every bottle since. By 1898 Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, gave it 200 tonneaux.

The Sichel and Mähler-Besse families have owned Palmer since 1938, and Thomas Duroux has directed it since 2004. The vineyard is Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in equal parts with a touch of Petit Verdot, some of the Merlot planted in the 1930s, farmed biodynamically and divided into 5 islands: the Plateau behind the château, nearest the estuary and the oldest; Domec, 13 hectares between the cellar and the wine road; the Cassena, 3 kilometers away, with 4 white varieties among the reds; the 40s and 50s, 20 parcels split by the railway; and Boston-Boulibranne, the young Cabernet. The wine ferments in 54 vats of 89 to 195 hectoliters and ages 20 to 22 months; Alter Ego de Palmer is the second wine.

Stephen Brook once wrote that if no one disputes that the finest property in Margaux is Château Margaux, “it would also be widely accepted that the second in line is Palmer.” I agree. The 2015, which I tasted in June 2025, is a near-perfect wine: still young, with a floral perfume that opens into spice, herbs, strawberries and blueberries, fine tannins, balanced acidity and a very long finish.

At a glance

Appellation

Margaux Terroir of Margaux →

Commune

Cantenac

Classification

Troisième Cru Classé 1855; Michelin Guide, 2 grapes (2026)

Owners

The Sichel and Mähler-Besse families, since 1938

Direction

Thomas Duroux, since 2004

Vineyard

5 islands: the Plateau, Domec, the Cassena, the 40s and 50s, Boston-Boulibranne

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in equal parts, with Petit Verdot

Farming

Biodynamic, without pesticides

Cellar

54 vats of 89 to 195 hectoliters; 20 to 22 months

Wines

Château Palmer; Alter Ego de Palmer

The name

Charles Palmer, owner from 1814 to 1843; the château of 1854 by the Pereire brothers

In history

No rank for Franck in 1824, a fourth growth in 1845 and 1853, a Third in 1855