It’s one of those great champagne stories. The Reims-based house of Palmer & Co was established over 70 years ago in 1947 by seven families of grape-growers with prized and premium Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards in the Montagne de Reims region of Champagne, which is among the Champagne regions on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The growers sought excellence, balance and finesse. Mission accomplished. The house also has vineyards in the Côte de Sézanne area, the Côte des Bar and the Marne Valley.

The blending process at Palmer & Co is key to the house’s fine champagnes with a Cellar Master and four oenologists carefully hovering over the process. « For Palmer & Co, the creation of a cuvée is just as much the work of nature as it is the work of man. We blend the different varieties, crus and reserve wines until we reach the perfect balance, explains, »  Cellar Master Xavier Berdin. 

The house’s rich collection of reserve wines form the backbone of the house’s champagnes. And this is evident in the house’s Brut Réserve which we recently tasted at The Gourmet Gazette. Precise, fresh and wonderfully dry, we conceived some miniature blinis with Philadelphia cream cheese and very briny lumpfish eggs which were perfectly accompanied by the signature Palmer & Co Grand Réserve. It offers a rich taste and features the three traditional grape varieties of Champagne: 50-55% Chardonnay, 35-40% Pinot Noir and 10-15% Pinot Meunier. Reserve wines represent 25-35% of the composition. The champagne is aged for three to four years with the magnum version remaining in the cellars for five to six years.  ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette

Palmer & Co: 67 rue Jacquart, 51100 Reims, France. Tel: + 33 (0) 3 26 07 35 07 https://www.champagne-palmer.fr/en/naturally-elegant/