1961 Château Palmer

I hadn't tasted the 1961 Palmer for several years, and at this stage it is a little fragile, so it was an immense pleasure to drink a bottle that lived up to every bit of its legendary reputation. Offering up a complex bouquet of ripe wild berries, iris and candied violets mingled with notions of black truffle, pipe tobacco and sweet soil tones, it's medium-bodied, soft and supple, with a sweet core of fruit, melted tannins and ripe acids. Concluding with a long, intensely sapid finish, this sumptuous, impeccably balanced Palmer is indeed one of the great wines of the vintage. Incidentally, I sent the dregs to the local enological laboratory, and incredibly, the wine checks in at a mere 11% alcohol; yet such is its intensity of flavors and evident ripeness that tasters invariably guess a higher figure.

The 1961 Palmer is a wine that tends to deliver upon its gargantuan reputation and we were rewarded with an exemplary bottle here. It has a clear colour with modest bricking on the rim. The bouquet is difficult to encapsulate into words – utterly ethereal. Heavenly definition, almost Burgundy-like in purity with traces of pencil box and pressed violets. It grows in stature with each swirl of the glass and leaves you transfixed. The palate is bestowed beguiling balanced, almost symmetrical, framed by filigree tannin and pitch perfect acidity. Like the aromatics it coheres with aeration, the fruit undiminished by time even if it is no blockbuster. Quite the opposite – this 1961 Palmer is the apotheosis of finesse with just a hint of balsamic on the aftertaste. This Margaux can bring you to tears of joy. Tasted at the 1961 dinner Chairman Miaow’s in Hong Kong.