Andrew Jefford | Dark black-red in color, still opaque at the core. At first I feared this sample had some cork issues—there was a wood/cardboard quality with less aromatic detail than I would expect from Palmer. With time and air, though, the wine opened up suggestively and very attractively: flowers, lemon and lemon peel, and sweet grains, as well as vivacious, spice-freshened blackcurrant fruits, so the cork was not at issue. The floral notes simply amplify with time, though they are not as refined and exquisite as they would be in a great vintage. On the palate, the wine is intense, deep, supple, poised, concentrated, and elegant, with shaping, brisk tannins and singing, lyrical, fruit-packed acidity: clearly a success. The fruits on the palate are complex (redcurrant and pomegranate as well as blackcurrants) and driving, and I suspect some of the aromatic complexity I noted with time on the aromas will eventually come to marble the palate, too. It has fine concentration and assurance; very fine-grained tannins. Great loveliness, as ever, though not the dimensions of the past two wonderful vintages. Nonetheless, still one of the vintage’s top wines. | 94

Michael Schuster | Discreetly blackcurrant, but still rather closed to smell; rich, medium-full wine, fresh in acidity, finely firm in tannin; deep, sweet, fleshy, and vitally defined on the palate; long and succulent, close-grained and complex, with great length of flavor and of finish, too. This is ripe and ample and rich within the year, a relatively long-term constitution both for the vintage and for the appellation in the year. I think it will definitely need, and reward, time in bottle. Beautiful Palmer, an exceptionally fine, long-term expression of 2017 and of Margaux. 2030–40+. | 94