This is amazing for the second wine with incredible white truffle, stone and currant character. Purity of fruit on the nose. Full-bodied, silky and refined. Fantastic length. Better in 2018 but almost impossible to resist now. Incredible.
94 points – jamessuckling.com, Feb 2015

Another brilliant example from administrator Thomas Duroux and his team, the intense second wine, Palmer’s 2012 Alter Ego (51% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Petit Verdot), offers up plenty of blackberry and crème de cassis notes along with some spring flowers, licorice and subtle background oak. Opulently textured, full-bodied and stunning, this is an outrageously successful second wine to drink over the next 12-15 years. Drink 2015-2030.
93 points – Robert Parker (eRobertParker.com, April 2015)

The second wine, which has gone from strength to strength over recent years, the 2012 Alter Ego de Palmer, is a blend of 51% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Petit Verdot. Spicy and earthy, displaying notes of new saddle leather, roasted herbs and meaty barbecue, it is a medium-bodied, fleshy, attractive wine to drink over the next 10-12 years. Drink: 2013 - 2025.
88-90 points – Robert Parker (Wine Advocate #206, April 2013)

The 2012 Alter Ego is unusually dark in this vintage, the result of abnormally low yields and very ripe Merlot. An exuberant, voluptuous wine, the 2012 hits the palate with a mélange of black cherry, plum, smoke, licorice, tobacco and grilled herbs. There is more than enough tannin and acidity to support a good decade-plus of very fine drinking. This is a superb second wine that should be on consumers' radar screens, as it over delivers, big time. The 2012s at Palmer are made from unusually low yields of around 28 hectoliters per hectare. One of the effects of the 2011 hailstorm that hit the estate was a lowering of the following year's crop, which has resulted in rich, tannic wines. Estate Manager Thomas Duroux opted to give the 2012s more time in barrel than is customary and the wines were bottled in September 2014. Drink 2016-2027.
92 points – Antonio Galloni (vinous.com, Jan 2016)

Low yields - 28hl/ha, a result of impact of 2011. Alter Ego makes up 45% of the estate’s crop, with Petit Verdot in both wines for the first time. Deep, violet and dark cherry nose. Intense hit on the palate with some complexity. Proper Cabernet characters but with a plumminess from the Merlot. (51% Merlot/40% Cabernet Sauvignon/9% Cabernet Franc).

Offers notes of smoke, roasted herb and cassis bush, with solid plum fruit. Shows grace on the palate, delivering dark, silky fruit and caressing tannins lined with an iron edge. Tasted non-blind.
90-93 points – James Molesworth (Wine Spectator)

Tasted from a barrel sample at en primeur. A blend of 51% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Petit Verdot, the first time that the latter has been used in both blends, the Alter Ego has a strong scent of Japanese nori that is quite attractive. The palate is medium-bodied with a fleshy ripe opening – brambly red berry fruit, a slight metallic note that leads to a corpulent (for the vintage) finish that bodes well for the future.
90-92 points – April 2013

Deeply perfumed nose; firm, serious style of second wine, fairly full, finely tannic, plenty of matter; sapid, ripe, intense in flavour, mouthcoating, long and scented both to taste and to finish; quite ‘big’ for Margaux, impressive second wnie. Gorgeous fruit, but a slightly more muscular interpretetion of the year. 6-8 years minimum. Drink 2020-30. [51M/40CS/9PV] (28hl/ha; 45% harvest; 13.5; 30% new).
88-90 points – Bordeaux Mar/Apr 2013

18% press wine, pH 3.65. Quite strong leafy Cabernet aromas, but lovely freshness and round tannins. Is this like Palmer of old? I don’t think I would guess this was majority Merlot... Just slightly green on the end. 13.4%. Drink 2019-2027.