1916 Château Palmer

Community Tasting Notes (2) Avg Score: 93 points

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  11/16/2015 - TuanHH Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Nose of wet autumn forest, mushroom and tobacco. On the palate, fruits are still underlying earthy notes of dried meat soaked in Madeira. The finish is unexpectedly short but who could blame a claret of this age not to be perfect.

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  6/13/2009 - SimonG wrote: flawed

  Dinner @ R&Y: Label degraded so that it's clearly palmer but the vintage is unknown. Looks old though. Very dark greyey-green bottle. Good level - just about to the bottom of the neck, total ullage from cork about an inch. Capsule quite rusted and cork pushed out ever so slightly. Top part of the cork comes out but the rest crumbles in to fragments. Just about able to make out the vintage from the side of the cork looks to be 1916 - the 19 and 6 are clear and there's a slight flaw in the cork where the 1 for the decade is - becomes decipherable as the cork fragment dries out. The same year is just about discernible, with the eye of faith, on the label - at the bottom though rather than above the chateau as on more recent vintages. Decanted to clean up and tasted straight away. Pale browney garnet, very thin and pale, water-like on the rim and pretty light all the way through. Nose initially dirty, then a moderately rich, caramel, oloroso aroma that pleasant but not claret. Palate heavily oxidised, thin and acidic. Sadly this is DOA. The first sip leaves an unpleasant almost metallic after taste, but actually with some air this moderates somewhat but it's hardly a pleasant drink. Worth a few sips though for the historical interest - a 93 year old bottle made as the Western Front was bogged-down in the Somme.

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