2002 Château Palmer

Community Tasting Notes (112) Avg Score: 91.8 points

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  11/24/2023 - 560 B&W Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Fine. Seems prematurely over the hill. 13%

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  5/18/2023 - forceberry wrote: 92 Points

  A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (52%), Merlot (40%) and Petit Verdot (8%), harvested between the last week of September and the first week of October. Fermented and macerated in tronconic stainless steel vats. Aged for 20 to 22 months in French oak barriques (50-60% new). 13% alcohol.
  
  Deep, moderately translucent black cherry color. The brooding nose feels ripe, dark-toned and a bit funky with aromas of juicy blackcurrants, some spicy phenolic notes of brett, a little bit of toasty oak spice, light bretty nuances of saddle leather, a hint of pipe tobacco and a touch of sweet plummy fruit. The wine feels dense, somewhat tough and still surprisingly youthful on the palate with a full body and intense, dry flavors of ripe blackcurrants, some tobacco, a little bit of leathery funk, light woody notes of pencil shavings and savory oak spice, a hint of gravelly minerality and a touch of juicy red plum. Despite its intensity, the wine sort of seems to lack a bit of punch, instead coming across as a bit understated and slightly hollow. The wine is still very stern and tightly-knit with its quite high acidity and very assertive, grippy tannins. The finish is dry, sinewy and noticeably grippy with intense and quite youthful flavors of blackcurrants and tart red plums, some leathery funk, a little bit of gravelly minerality, light woody notes of pencil shavings, a hint of pipe tobacco and a touch of sweeter dark fruit.
  
  True to the Palmer style, this is a remarkably youthful, stern and structure-driven wine, even at 20 years of age. However, despite its firm and structured overall feel, the wine is sort of lacking volume or something in the middle, coming across as slightly hollow - as if there wasn't enough fruit or other stuffing to fill out the rigid structural frame of assertive tannins and high acidity. I guess that's 2002 Bordeaux for you. However, as the wine feels still so very youthful and vibrant, it is entirely possible that this wine will slowly soften and resolve over the years, hopefully letting the emerging tertiary nuances fill out the midpalate better. Although not super impressive, this was still an enjoyable effort in its own right. The wine got 2 points from the ten participants in our tasting, making it finish on fourth place.

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  4/15/2023 - Spikeisryu Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Fruity, clear, sweet and well balanced excellent wine!!

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  1/22/2023 - Tao wrote: 92 Points

  My sincere advice to you is, try not to dip your toes into it unless you have high curiosity in it and have many bottles in your hands! Very dark ruby red in colour! Muted leathery nose, the palate is tight and a touch tannic, restrained dark flowery fruits! Absolutely no rush to drink, will cellar it for five to eight years and see how it goes!!

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  1/14/2023 - honest bob wrote: 91 Points

  From 75cl, perfect cork, decanted 1 hour. More muted than the bottle I recorded here on 19.02.2021; this one is all about the slender, pure cassis fruit, now fully mature, with depth and considerable refinement, but without heft or complexity. The refined sweetness is a real achievement for a 2002 Médoc. However, all in all, and despite being a delicious drink, it's simply less exciting than I'd hoped. That's the problem with "luxury wine" these days, now it has become such a financially significant purchase: when it's just "delicious" at this price level you can catch yourself feeling cheated even if the product is indeed an excellent one for the vintage in question. 91P

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