Palmer & Co. have been making noteworthy and elegant Champagne since 1947. They began as seven winegrowers, who came together with a shared vision and passion for making ultra-premium wine; now, they grow grapes over 415 ha of vineyards, of which 200ha encompass 40 crus in the Montage de Reims. The rest of their grapes are grown across the Côte de Sézanne, the Côte des Bar and the Marne Valley, this patchwork of terroirs helping Palmer to achieve wonderful balance.

Cellar Master Xavier Berdin and his team of four oenologists take ‘the art of blending’ very seriously. One of the few Champagne houses to have a Solera system, their 35-year-old Soleras add richness and complexity into the Champagnes – these reserve wines are the backbone of their non-vintage cuvées.

Time is of the essence for Palmer & Co., as their self-confessed most important ingredient. The long lees ageing gives the wines their characteristic refinement and aromatic complexity: a minimum of three years for non-vintage, while the vintage cuvées are aged for six to eight years. Not to mention the larger bottles, left in the cellars for ten years or more!

Maturing in a maze of deep, chalky galleries, the bottles rest 20 metres under the city of Reims. They love large formats at Palmer, so the lengths of the cellars are filled with anything from 1996 magnums of Blanc de Blancs, to 20-30-year-old Nebuchadnezzars and Methusalems. In fact, they lovingly call regular 75cl bottles “half magnums”.