Annabelle Grellier, Sales Director of Château Palmer.

Why a specialized, ultra-premium offer matters…

In this second Insider episode, Caroline Meesemaecker talks with Annabelle Grellier, Sales Director of Château Palmer, about the reasons behind Alter Ego's success.

Can you tell us what Alter Ego is?

"Alter Ego is a wonderful adventure. For a long time, we produced a second wine at Palmer called Réserve du Général - truly conceived as a second wine. But in 1998, we decided to create Alter Ego. The idea was that at Palmer we had the ability to make two great wines, with two different expressions, two nuances of our terroir.

Alter Ego today is really the more contemporary expression. The idea is a wine that reflects Palmer's terroir but in a more immediate, more spontaneous, and also more accessible way."

What allowed Alter Ego to truly take off over the past ten years - to the point of outgrowing the "second wine" category?

"I think the essential thing was the message around Alter Ego and how we conveyed it - to our négociant clients, to the trade, and to the end consumer.

We never described Alter Ego as a second wine, because we give it the same attention as Palmer. It's definitely not a second wine, and I think that's well understood today.

There's a level of quality in Alter Ego that, to me, is undeniable. And then there's the whole world we've built around it - a world the trade and consumers really want to embrace."

What explains Alter Ego's clear success in restaurants?

"That, I think, is the great strength of the Place de Bordeaux. That system lets us shine and spread our distribution across the world. With Alter Ego, of course, we pay close attention to how it's distributed everywhere.

The statistics our négociants share with us today are very encouraging - and yes, it's a success, especially in restaurants. Why? We mentioned the quality. We also talked about the fact that a Palmer is a wine for keeping - 10 to 15 years before you can fully appreciate it. Alter Ego is the wine you can open much more easily and sooner.

So each wine has its place. And Alter Ego's strength today is that, for a restaurateur or a wine merchant, it's a genuinely different offer for their customers - with a level of quality that's spot on."

If you had to sum up Alter Ego in three words?

"Brilliance, spontaneity, and - I'd say - energy."