I thought of you when I wanted to organize the traditional debauchery that we make with friends around the August 15th week-end.
I took in my cellar in the south a bottle with no label. A catalog of an auction sale lays near the bottle and I can read : Palmer 1990 the year is confirmed by the cork easily readable.
I look at the capsule and the name of Chateau Palmer is clearly carved, but the drawing does not evoke to me a Chateau bottling.
Anyway I take the bottle with the hope it could be good. To take risks is unavoidable.
When I want to open the bottle at 11 am for a lunch at 1:30 at the home of friends, I take the bottle in hand and it is only at this moment that I see a label with a code bar which is the same as in supermarket and I can read Palmer 1990.
Then I look at the capsule and I see a line around the capsule at the top which could be a cut made. Is the top of the capsule belonging to the capsule, I am nervous.
I cut the top of the capsule and I see some dark mud on the top of the cork which is good news. This cork has an age which corresponds to 1990 or around.
I lift the cork and I have a superb cork indicating Palmer and 1990 and from what I see no doubt is possible. The level is perfect, in the neck.
I smell the wine and I am happy. This will be a great wine and in fact, it was the winner of the lunch with seven bottles, before Lanson Noble Cuvée 1988 and a particularly good Mouton 1985.
A bottle with no label, with a label of supermarket, a capsule with a drawing which is curious, a capsule which could have been cut, a too perfect level, all that made me think of you. Because it was very difficult to say : this is a real Palmer 1990. But it was.
This message did not create any discussion.
As I was a little astonished by the drawing on this capsule, I searched on my blog in order to see how were the capsules that I have photographied.
This drawing comes for far in the past as I found it on a 1910 Palmer (probably recoated later)
Then 1928 :
1959 :
1961 :
1983 :
The only one which was different has a white label and mentioned the distributor who is also shareholder : Mähler Besse
So the drawing which has absolutely not originality : a grape of vine, belongs to the history of Palmer.
Francois, Thank you for sharing the story, the thought process and all the pictures.
As someone who regularly buys older wines I worry all the time about the imperfect bottles, and usually avoid them. But your post makes me consider the imperfect bottle, in all that it might say about the unpredictability of creation and storage, as perhaps one more likely to be true.
Thank you for a fascinating post and it was great that you were able to drink the bottle and finally be confident in it. Suspicion as to the provenance of a wine can play such tricks with your mind that I find myself tortured for days with “was it or was it not” doubts after consuming such bottles. It is a real pity.
Beautiful pictures and note, Francois. I have only had the opportunity to enjoy the 1990 Palmer once, and it was one of the best bottles of wine I have had.
Speaking of 1990 Palmer here is a 5L that is up for auction in a couple weeks. Wish I had some spare cash to bid on this. (no affiliation with this lot or HDH)
