NV Palmer & Co Blanc de Blancs

All vintage 2008. Aged on lees 11 years. Disgorged 25 February 2020. Bottled 3 July 2009. Dosage 7.8 g/l. Tasted blind from magnum . Neat but not arresting nose. Quite introvert with only modest evolution initially though it opened out quite substantially in the glass over time. Nice lemon-cream flavours but I think I might even take it for a current NV. Not especially long. Off dry. (JR)

Full bottle with the box it comes in, 1,708 g. Chardonnay primarily from the premier crus of Villers-Marmery and Trépail in Montagne de Reims. Five years in bottle. Dosage 6.5 g/l. The tracking code on the back label is L21189C which, when entered into their website, tells me that this wine was bottled 16 May 2017 and disgorged 19 August 2021. Stainless-steel fermentation, full malo.  Broad gunpowder-smoke and citrus-cream nose. A serious, competently balanced wine with sweetness that tastes deceptively higher than 6.5 g/l, full-sail fruit ending in a tight draw of sherbet-bright acidity. The Palmer Blanc de Blancs had a good track record of ageing well when it was a vintage wine, and this newer NV version tastes as if it will also take a good 10 years of cellar age. (TC)

The latest release of Palmer's emblematic NV Blanc de Blancs Brut is showing very well, bursting from the glass with gently reductive aromas of crisp orchard fruit, toasted bread, nectarine and iodine. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and precise, with a pretty core of fruit, bright acids and an attractive pinpoint mousse, it's showing well today but will be even better with a little more bottle age.