The importance of an ultra-qualitative specialized offer…
In this second episode of Insider, Caroline Meesemaecker talks with Annabelle Grellier, Commercial Director of Château Palmer, about the reasons for Alter Ego’s success.
Can you tell us who Alter Ego is?
“Alter Ego is a wonderful adventure. For a long time, we produced a second wine at Palmer called La Réserve du Général. It was very much conceived as a second wine. But in 1998, we decided to create Alter Ego. The idea was to recognize that at Palmer, we actually had the potential to craft two great wines, but with two distinct expressions, two different nuances of our terroir.
Today, Alter Ego is really the more contemporary expression. The idea is to have a wine that reflects the Palmer terroir but offers a more immediate, spontaneous, and also more accessible expression.”
Could you explain what, in your view, has allowed Alter Ego to really gain momentum over the past decade, to the point where it has achieved a status beyond that of a typical second wine?
“I believe the key has been the message we’ve conveyed about Alter Ego and how we’ve communicated it, whether to our négociants, the trade, or the final consumer.
We’ve never described Alter Ego as a secondwine, because for us, we dedicate the same level of care and attention to it as we do for Palmer. It’s definitely not a second wine, and I think today, that’s well understood.
There’s an undeniable level of quality in Alter Ego, in my opinion. And beyond that, there’s the entire universe we’ve built around it—a world that the négociants, the trade, and consumers are genuinely eager to embrace fully.”
What are the success factors behind Alter Ego’s undeniable success in the restaurant business?
“I think that’s the great strength of Bordeaux and the Place de Bordeaux. Today, this system allows us to expand and truly diversify our distribution across the globe. With Alter Ego, we’re very mindful of how it’s distributed everywhere.
The statistics our négociants share with us now are incredibly encouraging. And as you mentioned, it’s a real success, especially in the restaurant sector. Why? Because we talked earlier about the level of quality.
We also touched on the fact that a Palmer wine is a wine meant for aging—you need to wait 10 to 15 years to fully enjoy it. Alter Ego, on the other hand, is a wine that can be opened much more easily and quickly.
So, I think each of these wines has its place. The strength of Alter Ego today is that for a restaurateur or a wine shop owner, it offers something truly different for their customers, but with a level of quality that’s just perfect.”
If you had to sum up Alter Ego in three words, what would they be?
“ Brilliance,” “spontaneity,” and I would say, “energy.”
