Palmer & Co: Bottles vs Magnums and Vintage Collection

Our visit with Jancis Robinson MW in June 2019 was our second of the year to Palmer & Co’s flashy new High Environmental Quality winery just outside of Reims. Only the second such winery to be built in the region (the other is owned by Moët & Chandon), its wildflower meadows – sowed on the ground surrounding the winery to aid biodiversity – were in full bloom this time around, lending a quaint natural backdrop to the high-tech, predominantly glass building.

We met with managing director Remi Vervier, chef de cave Xavier Berdin and export manager Arthur Camut to taste the current Palmer & Co range and a wide selection of older vintages. Vervier’s brief history of the house included a quite unexpected explanation of the origins of the house’s name.

When the house was founded in 1947, a particular brand of English biscuits called Huntley & Palmers (which had proved difficult to acquire during World War II) were very chic in Reims. They were so popular in fact, that the founders believed they could take advantage of some positive association by naming their Champagne cooperative Palmer & Co (the ‘& Co’ was apparently added “because everyone had ‘& Co’ after their name in the 1940s”).

Fortunately the criteria for entry into the Palmer group was much more thorough than the naming process. Beginning with seven founding growers, only established winemakers could join the cooperative, as new members were required to have a pressing machine, ownership of which was uncommon at the time.

Today, more than 350 members make up the Palmer & Co cooperative, including six of the original founders (the remaining founder, based in the Côte des Blancs, left when Palmer & Co settled in Reims). The group collectively owns over 420 hectares of vineyard, more than 50% of which is prized Grand and Premier Cru land in the Montagne de Reims. The Chardonnay from this region, particularly from Trépail and Villers-Marmery, contributes heavily to the unique citrusy fresh house style.

Management is still kept very much ‘in the family’, with the grandson of one of the founders still presiding over the Palmer & Co council today. The oenology team consists of five individuals with an impressive gender balance for such a male-dominated industry: three women work alongside Vervier and Berdin to form the tasting committee.

We tasted the current range from both bottle and magnum, as larger formats are very important to Palmer & Co. “Magnum size is the best size for us”, Vervier confided. “There is never the same ageing time on lees for bottle and magnum.”

Indeed, Palmer are one of only two producers (alongside Drappier) to conduct lees ageing in all size formats up to the mighty 15L Nebuchadnezzar (other houses will ferment in bottle and transfer the wine after). Vervier commented that “it is very difficult to find a Nebuchadnezzar that can withstand the necessary pressure of four bars for a ‘real’ second fermentation”.

The lees ageing periods for different formats is roughly: 4 years for bottle, 6 years for magnum, 10 years for Jeroboam, 15 years for Methuselah, and an incredible 20 years for Nebuchadnezzar. “We have to leave wine on the lees for long time. It’s not for fun (its expensive!) but we do it because the wines from our region have lots of strength, complexity and richness, so we need lees ageing to get elegance and freshness. We obtain the character from the lees ageing,” Vervier told us.

Alongside the current range we tasted two new products, Vintage 2012 and Grands Terroirs 2003. The latest vintage is a precise, linear and powerful champagne with all the potential to be even greater than the current 2008 release and will be launched at the end of the year. Meanwhile, Grands Terroirs 2003 is an exciting limited edition champagne boldly challenging the commonly held notion that hot vintages produce champagnes that are not suitable for long-term ageing (discover more here) and is the perfect idiosyncratic addition to an already accomplished and diverse range.

Although the mission with Palmer & Co Blanc de Blancs is to demonstrate the power of Chardonnay from the Montagne de Reims – rather than to showcase the vintage (it is always produced from a single vintage but is not labelled as a vintage champagne) – the late release Blanc de Blancs Collection bottles do show the vintage on the label, permitting a fun and interesting comparison of vintage style.

We were fortunate enough to taste three vintages from the Blancs de Blancs Collection and four from the Vintage Collection, dating as far back as 1961. Aside from one unfortunate case of oxidation, all highlighted the supreme ageing potential of the Palmer & Co wines and style, a fact further confirmed by new Grands Terroirs 2003. Through careful selection of grapes in the prime north-facing real estate of the Montagne de Reims and careful, attentive winemaking, Palmer really seem to have discovered the secret to ageing – even in the most challenging conditions.