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Wine Description
The Story
It has always been the Champagne PALMER founders’ will and spirit to maintain an active policy of preservation of rare and wonderful vintage wines: 1989, 1987, 1985, 1979, 1976, 1961, 1959... They are one of the prides of our House and often constitute a real revelation.
These inestimable flacons are kept many long years in a position known as "sur pointe ", that means on the wine deposit, the bottles being upright placed, necks upside down. This position allows to slow down the exchanges which are going to take place gently and smoothly between the wine and its deposit; this is the security of a “second life” for the champagne.
A long maturation of twenty years and more, in the heart of our deep chalky cellars, confers a rare complexity and a plenitude to these flacons. These wines of a luxurious golden color develop complex and elegant flavors (honey, toasted notes, coffee bean, dried fruits, spices, truffle …) and an intensity of taste concentrated in a palette of extraordinary nuances, while keeping a remarkable freshness.
The champagne “sur pointe” will keep on improving and developing its wealth until the day it is disgorged (expulsion of the deposit). This operation is made on demand, by small lots, a few weeks before delivery.
These flacons of anthology are fundamentally wines for meals. It’s around a table, in association with chosen dishes that they reveal their incredible wealth and subtlety. They always bring a supplement of refinement and allow to compose brilliant gastronomic symphonies.
Vintage 1996
Up to this point 1996 has been considered a fantastic vintage which produced classic wines; the best since 1990. A long, dry summer produced grapes of record ripeness with record acidity. Some, including myself, question how the 1996s are aging. The wines are generally characterized by a distinctive rather lemony acidity and very good attack, but some wines now seem terribly austere, while others already seem dangerously short of fruit. None of the subsequent vintages are quite as distinctive as 1996, which in the more successful cases should almost certainly be drunk after the 1999s.