I was chatting with Ralph about the venerable Château Palmer, a 3rd growth estate making 1st growth quality wine. With compelling perfumed notes that seem to contain elements from every commune at once, Palmer has complexity, but it also has a voice of its own - an engaging warmth and supple texture, with nuances of vanillin and spice (sort of a Pichon-Lalande through the looking glass character), but with broad shouldered structure and tremendous potential to improve with bottle age. Ralph had just been involved in a Palmer tasting of sorts, and was waxing poetic about the 1980, a wine that should have seen its day a while ago but showed beautifully. For this reason, it was a hit of the tasting. (Joe Zugelder)