Champagne Palmer reveals two new Grands Terroirs iterations

The latest launches of Champagne Palmer Grands Terroirs showcase vintages which express “exactly what [to] expect from a great Champagne”, according to Palmer & Co CEO and oenologist Rémi Vervier.

Palmer & Co unveiled its ‘Grands Terroirs 2015’ in bottle and ‘Grands Terroirs 2012’ in magnum at a press event held at Skye Gyngell’s Spring Restaurant in Somerset house on 15 June. CEO and oenologist Rémi Vervier presented the wines.

Grands Terroirs puts the focus on region, shining a spotlight on the Montagne de Reims. The wines are made with grapes from Grand Crus Mailly, Verzenay, and Premier Crus Trépail, Villers-Marmery, Ludes, Chigny-les-Roses, Rilly-la-Montagne.

Palmer has chosen to focus on marketing the Grands Terroirs cuvées to gain notoriety, partnering with Bibendum and Matthew Clark for sales the UK market.

Vervier noted that Champagne Palmer’s goal is to have the cuvées intrinsically linked to the Palmer name, in the hope that “when we say Grands Terroirs, people will think of Palmer”.

The first Grands Terroirs cuvée was revealed to the market four years ago with the launch of the 2003 vintage.

Now Palmer is launching the 2015 vintage in bottle and 2012 vintage in magnum.

Grands Terroirs 2015 vintage was created with the same recipe used by Palmer & Co’s founders with the first blend in 1947. It is a blend of 50% Chardonnay, 38% Pinot Noir and 12% Meunier. The Pinot Noir gives fruitiness and structure to the “impact” of Chardonnay, with grapes which exhibit the “warm expression” of the 2015 vintage.

Palmer & Co’s current production size is one million bottles per year, making it what Vervier calls a “medium” sized Champagne producer. However, the CEO noted that there is room to double production without making any changes to the wines, with a current growth rate of 100,000 bottles per year.

Some 20,000 bottles of the 2015 vintage in bottle will be available globally, compared with just 2,000 magnums of the 2012 vintage.

Vervier believes that wine achieves “another dimension of expression” in magnum.

Tasting the Grands Terroirs 2012 in magnum last week, Vervier described it as “exactly what I expect from a great Champagne”. He said: “If you want to know what Palmer is, it’s that.”

Palmer is focused on expressing “another dimension of wine” through magnum, with all of the company’s magnum cuvées, from the Brut non vintage up, spending longer on lees.

“We call the bottles half magnums,” Vervier joked.

“We use time as an ingredient, like any other,” he said, noting that the magnum is the “perfect size for the expression of the wine”.

Created by a group of seven winegrowers, Palmer & Co is a cooperative with more than 300 growers currently contributing to the brand.

Vervier explained that the families responsible for launching the brand did so to foreground the “experience of blending” in place of a focus on growing.

Amazone de Palmer is the Champagne house’s top prestige cuvée, retailing at £150 per bottle. A bottle of Grands Terroirs 2015 vintage has a retail price of £74.90 in comparison, with the magnums coming in at £189.90.

Vervier expects Grands Terroirs to sit within the “high vintage” category below the prestige cuvée bracket.

He said: “I’m very proud of this wine, because I like it,” noting that when it comes down to it, this is what to search for in each expression of winemaking.