In the 19th century, it was a common practice of the time to “hermitage” the wines. Bordeaux chateaux would add to their wines a certain quantity of wine from the Rhone - notably from the region of Hermitage – whose syrah would strengthen the structure and power of the claret.

A few bottles can still be found dating back to this period, whose labels note the name of the cru and the word hermitagé, all from vintages preceding the AOC regulations which finally ended this practice. Then in the 21st century, Château Palmer came up with the idea of bringing this forgotten tradition back to life. Years ago, during a visit to a renowned collector in California, Thomas Duroux, the director of the property, had the rare opportunity to taste a 19th century Bordeaux hermitagé. The emotions experienced that day, in the presence of a wine more than a century old, have been fully expressed in the renaissance of Palmer’s own hermitagé, the Historical XIXth Century Wine. A definitively historic wine, whose name honours the storied past of the great wines of Bordeaux.

Yet today, the aim is no longer to simply boost a meagre claret so as to give it muscle, but rather to create a unique wine, combining wine from Palmer and a small measure of a great wine from the northern Côtes du Rhône.

This once ubiquitous but now idiosyncratic wine has a similar proportion of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon to the property’s 99-point 2019 Grand Vin with the addition of Syrah from the Rhone Valley. For this released based on the 2019 vintage the blend is:

47 % Merlot

44 % Cabernet Sauvignon

9 % Syrah (des Côtes du Rhône Septentrionales)