Palate
It has however been revived at Chateau Palmer. It is a very pleasant wine.
Growing Conditions
Bad weather, a good result. Favourable weather conditions are useful, but they are not always necessary. This vintage was marked by the most destructive frost since 1945 and then heavy rain during the harvest. Long days of selection in the chai, however, produced a wine of great charm.
1991 starts with a brief intensely cold spell. Indeed, spring arrived very early on February 17th, thus allowing for the vines to start growing on March 20th. They progressed rapidly over the month of April, which was very hot. Then, out of the blue, it snowed on April 20th. The next day, the sky was clear, but a mass of cold air destroyed between 20% and 80% of the young shoots. Spring was cold and often rainy right up until May 20th. The first flowers appeared on June 1st. The weather was very mixed making flowering complicated. We observed the first grain alterations on August 1st. The rest of the month was very hot and the ripening process made great progress. The first few weeks of September were dry enough. However, unfortunately, torrential rain fell on the vineyard on 25th and 26th, thus compromising the optimal maturity of the remaining grapes. These difficult conditions led to an extremely rigorous selection process so as to be able to produce well-structured fruity wines. We recall 1991 as the year of frost.
