Champagne Palmer: new reception room, symbol of history

Portrait Reims

Champagne Palmer

New reception room,
symbol of history

In 1959, the founders of the Palmer Champagne settled at Rue Jacquart in the golden triangle of Reims. In 1990, they bought the neighbouring buildings and cellars to root the brand in Reims. From the 2000s, a wind of modernization blows over the place. Culmination of the renovation, in 2015 general manager Rémi Vervier turned the former head office of the seven founders into a reception house. Palmer revives and takes its place back.

Rémi Vervier presents the Palmer house, turned into a reception house.

The 7 founders of Champagne Palmer defined the fundamentals of this wine through the ages: a supply of excellence; blending undertaken like art to get the right balance between Pinots and Chardonnay; elegance in all the cuvées who have the necessary time, before and after disgorgement, to refine their sparkling, reach fullness. In the maze of its cellars, Palmer maintains tradition, reproduces the ancient gestures (riddling on racks for the prestige cuvées for example), crafts and vinifies in big bottles (jeroboam, mathuselah, nebuchadnezzar), disgorges by hand the old vintages.

In the incredible maze of the underground galleries gathered by Champagne Palmer, in the dark, in this secret world, tradition continues. On the surface on the contrary, the head office shows brightness and modernity. It is a glass building, with pure white walls, streamlined furniture, comfortable sofas, translucent coffee tables, pieces of art on the walls. On the technical and logistics side, all has been integrated, thought, to magnify the Champagne and make the structures more attractive to the men who take care of them and to the visitors.

In the new tasting room of the reception house, Rémi Vervier presents all his cuvée.

In the courtyard of Palmer, a clear brick house was left abandoned since twenty years. It was the former head office of the founders. Palmer renovated it outside and inside and dedicated it to the customer reception. The works lasted for more than a year and represented a big investment.
The wind of modernity blew on the buildings but also on the bottles of Palmer. The labels have been redesigned. “It is the range's 2nd makeover, Rémi Vervier explains. The objective was to provide these bottles with purity, modernity and elegance without changing the English script font that identifies Palmer. Two ranges have been built up. The first one, Réserve, consists of a Brut, an Extra Brut, a Rosé and a half dry Champagne. The second one called Premium offers a Blanc de Blancs, a vintage 2008 and a new cuvée: a Blanc de Noirs.
The Blanc de Noirs, very popular in the 50s, had completed disappeared from the range. Back to its roots, Palmer revived it after four years of work. The blend has been completely revisited. It is crafted with both black varieties in equal parts. The grapes stem from elitist growths in the Reims Mountain, the Côte des Bars area and the Marne valley in equal volumes, and 30% of reserve wines enter its composition. In the nose, it exudes scents of peach and apricot, supported by notes of grapefruit and redcurrants, and heralds freshness in keeping with the Palmer style. In the mouth the same fruity aromas can be felt again, “but it is freshness and finesse that sign our Blanc de Noirs. To successfully achieve this cuvée, Rémi Vervier explains, we select the most tense, the freshest vats of Pinot, the black grape varieties naturally providing fruity notes and a beautiful material. Blanc de Noirs and Blanc de Blancs are two specifically “Palmer”-style Champagnes that express our vision of Champagne wine.”
These Premium cuvées Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs are available in limited quantities to offer or to treat oneself with (€38 a bottle).
Marie-Caroline Bourrellis

— www.champagne-palmer.fr —