Restaurant Review: La Cantine Vigneronne de Château Palmer

It’s understandable, after parking up at Château Palmer, if your attention turns to the iconic turrets of the 19th century château, commissioned by brothers Émile and Isaac Pereire the year after they purchased the estate in 1853, still casting their magic spell across this corner of southern Margaux.

You might, next time, want to take a quick glance to the vineyard on the opposite side of the road, facing the château, or rather the vegetable garden that stands next to it. Across a small wooden bridge is a hidden series of densely planted beds filled with a hotchpotch of potatoes, tomatoes, thyme, strawberries, string beans, peach trees, wild garlic, fava beans, Spring peas, green asparagus, yellow and red beets, artichokes, sage, zucchini, a constantly evolving series of flowers, fruits and vegetables depending on the moment of the year and the choices of Viviane Vincent-Tejero, market gardener and horticulturalist who has been at Palmer since 2020.

The influence of the newly-created restaurants at Château Palmer are clear too – or rather the chefs that are at the heart of their creation, led by Jean-Denis Le Bras, who gathered accolades in Paris, Hong Kong, Mayfair, St Bart’s and Brittany, with 18 years alongside Pierre Gagnaire before arriving in Margaux.

Among his favourite plants here are the rows of santolina cotton lavender used to flavour soups, broths, stews and sauces – with leaves and flowers harvested in summer and dried for use throughout the year. Another favoured plant is the crose root vegetable, also known as Japanese artichoke, that buries its pearl-shaped tubers that can be eaten raw, pickled, dried or cooked. And this being Palmer, a fully biodynamic estate since 2014, the garden is also considered as a feeding ground for the wider flora and fauna, with several planted beds away from the vegetables specifically to provide sustenance for insects. Don’t expect neat lines here – it is the taste and the utility of the plantings that takes precedence over aesthetics.

This garden – and its two sister plots a little further away in the appellation – provide a roadmap to Palmer’s new farm-to-fork hospitality offering. The market garden is part of a wider sustainable and circular farming philosophy. From the first days of conversion to organic and biodynamics, Landes ewes and Bordelaise cows helped supply the estate with compost, with director Thomas Duroux working alongside the Conservatoire des Races d’Aquitaine to chose a local breed originally from the alluvial prairies of the Gironde River. Emilie Husson, granddaughter of butchers from Bordeaux, is in charge of caring for the herd alongside Teddy, a former winegrower and new farmer. They started out with three head of cattle, and now have a herd that numbers around 30, living alongside goats, ewes, Gascon pigs, turkeys and chickens.

Already, things feel different here. This is an 1855 3rd Growth estate where the connection to the land is clear, and deepened by this project. Vincent-Tejero, wearing a canvas hat against the hot sun as she took us round the garden, handing us fresh sweet peas and late-season strawberries to try, studied environmental science at University of California Santa Barbara. Originally from Pauillac, she worked in several national parks across the States including Hawaii Volcanoes National Park  and Los Padres National Forest California, before returning to France and studying horticulture in Blanquefort.

She began working at Palmer during her conversion, and has stayed ever since, turning what was a small kitchen garden for the staff into a working garden that provides food for the table, contributing to feeding up to 100 people per day. Much of the produce from the farm is headed to Le Bras’ gastronomic restaurant within the main Château Palmer estate, but its philosophy, and extra produce, infuses the Cantine Vigneronne, or Palmer Canteen, overseen by chef Cédric Mouhou, where we were lucky enough to eat last week.

The canteen is set within the grounds of Palmer, in a series of squat buildings that once housed the offices but that have now been converted into a large airy space with exposed wooden beams, white walls, and a series of communal wooden tables that you can sit around on your own or in groups. The feel is of a convivial harvest lunch, but it’s year round.

The main focus of the canteen is to provide sustenance for the estate’s own team. This is clear on arrival, and if you are one of the 20-or-so extra guests allowed daily, you instantly feel lucky to be part of it. The main entrance houses a communal wash basin where you can clean up after a morning in the vines. Set into the wall above the basin is a wooden pigeonhole unit, divided into a grid of small cubby holes, each holding a napkin – claret-coloured for the Palmer team (they get their names displayed on their cubby hole also), white for guests.

You collect your napkin and are shown to your table – we were asked if we wanted an English or French speaking table, and sat down accordingly. There’s one set menu daily, three courses and a jug of wine (yes, it’s part of the Palmer family of wines – Palmer Vin de Lees 2019 when we were there, produced for the estate staff each year, and utterly delicious), for €24. The table is set with unfussy goblet wine glasses, and basic tumblers for water. Even the cutlery is pewter, old school, easy.

For us last week, lunch meant gaspacho poured over bowls already laid out with fresh pesto, croutons and parmesan crisps – served from a large white bowl with the ladle placed on the table next to us. Then steak in a wonderfully fragrant green peppercorn sauce, with juicy new potatoes, all finishing up with fromage blanc topped with oat crumble smothered over delicious blackcurrant confiture. To round things off, we downed the remaining water from our tumblers and replaced it with with fresh coffee out of a pot.

Everything was delicious, simply presented, just so. Hard to imagine a more perfect spot for lunch to be honest, game-changing the offering in the Médoc without looking like it is trying too hard at all.

Lunch served with 20 covers from Monday to Friday, offering a daily set menu featuring a majority of products grown and raised on the estate. Single service from 12.15pm to 1pm, Monday to Friday. Booking by telephone until 11am on the same day. Daily menu at €24.00 per person.
+33 5 57 88 72 72

Main photograph by Peter Aaron