CHÂTEAU LYNCH BAGES
2016 5ème Cru Classé Pauillac
75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. A very deep dark colour to a black centre. Quietly expressed spicy fruit on the nose. Huge mass and density on the palate, quite a richly extracted feel, with spice and mineral density that keeps it flowing. A 'serious' Lynch, with blackcurrant skin and sloe tannins, yet they never close up or tighten in a hard way. Very rich, very long. Seriously impressive. Drinking range: 2027 - 2050 Rating: 93-95 L&S (Apr 2017)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
The 2016 Lynch-Bages is primal but concentrated on the nose with blueberry and crushed violet scents. This is powerful, sensual and utterly glorious. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannins, assertive and structured yet retaining ample freshness. There is a subtle marine note that comes through on the finish. One of the most profound releases from the estate in recent years...maybe ever? Tasted at the Lynch-Bages vertical at the château. Drinking range: 2026 - 2060 Rating: 97 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jul 2023)
Muscular but finely-tuned, with a floral, rose-stem edge to Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant flavours that elevates this beyond its surrounding vintages, as is often the case with exceptional 2016s on the Left Bank. Give it time in the glass if you are going near it any time soon, and allow the brambled fruits to appear, with creamy black cherry and damson puree on full display finessed with pencil lead, plum pudding, liqourice and slate-strewn tannins that give a mouth-watering finish. Great stuff, this is one to savour over the long term. 75% new oak. Drinking range: 2026 - 2046 Rating: 99 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2022)
The 2016 Lynch Bages has a wonderfully perfumed bouquet of intense black fruit laced with pencil lead, cigar box and incense aromas that soar from the glass, all displaying impressive delineation. The taut, focused palate is very well defined, with a fine line of acidity and great depth and concentration on the sophisticated, mineral-driven finish. Bon vin! Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting. Drinking range: 2023 - 2060 Rating: 97 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Aug 2020)
The flagship 2016 Château Lynch Bages is a powerhouse, checking in as 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot raised in 75% new French oak. This deep, concentrated, powerful 2016 is going to be one for the ages, but if you’re looking for instant gratification, this isn’t for you. Saturated purple-colored, with thick black fruits, graphite, and scorched earth aromas and flavors, it fills the mouth with fruit, has masses of tannins, and beautiful overall balance. Don’t even think about opening bottles before 7-8 years from now, and it’s going to have 3-4 decades of longevity. Drinking range: 2026 - 2066 Rating: 95+ Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Feb 2019)
A stellar wine, the 2016 Lynch-Bages is dark and explosive in the glass. Beams of tannin and bright acids give the 2016 its sense of drive and tension. From bottle, the 2016 is quite a bit more powerful than it was from barrel. Dark flavors and potent tannins give the 2016 a distinctly brooding, somber feel. Sage, lavender, menthol, licorice and wild cherry are all laced into the potent, dramatically sweeping finish. Readers should not be in a rush, as the 2016 is going to need a number of years to be at its best. Even so, it is super-impressive today. Drinking range: 2026 - 2056 Rating: 96 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Jan 2019)
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Lynch Bages comes charging out of the gate with pronounced cassis, chocolate-covered cherries, mulberries and menthol notions, backed up by scents of garrigue, tilled soil and a waft of tapenade. Medium to full-bodied, rich and fantastically concentrated, the generous fruit is superbly framed by firm, ripe, grainy tannins with tons of pepper, cinnamon and cloves layers coming through on the finish. Truly, a legendary Lynch Bages! Drinking range: 2022 - 2058 Rating: 97+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.com (Nov 2018)
The 2016 Lynch Bages is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot with 13.7% alcohol and an IPT of 95, the highest ever for this property and probably one of the highest on the Left Bank this vintage. It was picked between from 27-30 September for the young vines, then the picking team stopped, restarting on 3 October with the Merlot and the Cabernets finished on 12 October. This vintage is matured in 75% new oak. It has a very concentrated, almost opaque bouquet that required some coaxing from the glass, developing floral and crushed limestone scents with time: disarmingly fresh and with stunning vivacity. The palate is concentrated and tannic, although they are not obtrusive and appear neatly embroidered into the multi-layered black fruit. This is a classic Lynch Bages with ambition and recalls vintages like 1990, a Lynch Bages built for long-term ageing. That arching backbone is counterbalanced by the keen line of acidity and a freshness that knows no bounds. There is ethereal delineation and tension on the finish, but I would give this at least ten years in bottle to enjoy this audacious Lynch Bages at its peak. Maybe the biggest surprise of the vintage, this has all the makings of a sensational wine. Drinking range: 2026 - 2060 Rating: 97-99 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2017)
Very annoyingly, my tasting note on Lynch Bages has evaporated into thin air. I remember the wine as being delightfully plump yet structured and very recognisably Lynch with its trademark spiciness - so there don't seem to be any ill effects to its being made in a completely different place from usual (see pictures above) but more than that I cannot say for the moment. (I am trying to track down another sample.) I think I have remembered the score correctly but am much less certain about the drinking dates I have suggested here. All to be taken with a pinch of salt, I'm afraid. Drinking range: 2025 - 2042 Rating: 17.5 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2017)
This flashes some sporty flavors of ripe cassis, plum and blackberry compote, but quickly pulls everything together with the terrific graphite spine. Alluring tobacco and anise notes line the finish. Delivers fruit, power and cut. A great showing. Rating: 96-99 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2017)
This is really back-ended thanks to a powerful and almost endless finish. Full-bodied, dense and powerful with incredible concentration and length. Round and polished tannins. Layered. This unravels bit by bit. Energetic acidity gives it such superb freshness. This is at the 2010/2009 level. Rating: 98-99 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2017)
As we have increasingly seen in recent years, Lynch-Bages has shifted up a gear to go fuller, bigger and darker. The IPTs are around 95 here, which is unusual even in the northern Médoc, although they are unquestionably yielding, pliable and expertly worked tannins. The result is a hugely impressive wine with a creamy texture through the mid-palate and lashings of dark fruits, graphite and the essential addition of mint leaf freshness on the finish. From a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, with a yield around 42hl/ha, a touch lower than some because the deep gravel produced small berries, all coming in at 3.66pH and accounting for 65% of the overall production. This is a great Lynch without doubt, one for Pauillac purists who are looking for powerful impact. Drinking range: 2027 - 2050 Rating: 95 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2017)
The 2016 Lynch-Bages is deep, racy and sensual, with soft contours, silky tannins and striking juiciness in its fruit. All of the elements seem to fall into place effortlessly. Today, Lynch-Bages is unusually well put together for such a young wine. Expressive floral aromatics give the flavors lift, energy and brightness, while beams of present but well-integrated tannins extend the finish. Rating: 92-95 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2017)
Like Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Lynch has made a Fifth Growth wine of First Growth quality in 2016. This is a stunningly pure Pauillac, with incredible focus, balance and harmony. Mocha oak leads into a fresh, leafy, grassy palate of understated concentration. Drinking range: 2029 - 2040 Rating: 97 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Apr 2017)
The 2016 Lynch Bages has a wonderfully perfumed bouquet of intense black fruit laced with pencil lead, cigar box and incense aromas that soar from the glass, all displaying impressive delineation. The taut, focused palate is very well defined, with a fine line of acidity and great depth and concentration on the sophisticated, mineral-driven finish. Bon vin! Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting. Drinking range: 2023 - 2060 Rating: 97 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Dec 1899)
Château Lynch Bages
Pauillac Cinquième cru 1855 Thomas Lynch emigrated to Bordeaux from Galway in Ireland in 1691. He had two children and it was his son Thomas who associated the family name with Bordeaux by inheriting Lynch-Bages through his wife, and buying Lynch-Moussas and Dauzac in Margaux. Jean-Charles Cazes, who had recently bought Château Les Ormes de Pez in St Estèphe, took the tenancy of Lynch-Bages in 1934, and bought the property outright five years later. It has been the ownership of the Cazes family, who still own the estate, which turned Château Lynch Bages into the leading estate it is today, far exceeding the seemingly lowly 5th growth status bestowed upon it in 1855. There are 90ha of vines in the small village of Bages, just south of Pauillac. Red grapes are planted to 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. Wines are fermented in temperature-controlled stainless-steel before ageing in wood (60% new) for 15 months. There has been a second wine produced at Lynch-Bages since 1978 that was originally called Château Haut Bages Averous, but has recently been renamed Echo de Lynch Bages. A small amount of Château Lynch Bages Blanc is made from 40% each of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon and 20% Muscadelle.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those of the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do call us, but see the 'practical notes' below.
Ordering
Prices are per case as listed 'in bond London'.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment from you to buy the wines you order on release, subject to the price being below the upper price of the estimated band on our website. You may also set your own upper price limit, lower or higher than ours. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability. Providing this firm commitment to us effectively gives you priority.
Wines listed on the website (after any pre-orders and allocations have been fulfilled) can be ordered in the usual way via the website order form or by email or telephone 020 7221 1982, always subject to stock remaining.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are contractually binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of the confirmation date, apart from pre-orders which are binding if the release price is below the top estimate or other price you have set.
Invoices are raised at the In Bond price, excluding any duty and VAT which will become payable at the prevailing rates on arrival of the wine if required duty paid.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or credit transfer. We reserve the right to charge 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £1000, orders below this total will be charged £16.50+ VAT when the wine invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery for 2016 Bordeaux primeurs will probably be completed by October 2019, but we make no guarantee as to specific delivery times, and some of the Sauternes may be later.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes) for immediate payment. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option, but do please note that confirmed orders are still binding as above even if the final invoice has not been issued.
When the wine is shipped, unless previously specified we will assume that delivery is to be to bonded storage with Elephant Storage, but in any case, we will contact you requesting any alternative instructions. If you have another bonded delivery address you would like the wine to go to, please tell us at the time of ordering. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue invoices at the rates prevailing at the time for the excise duty (currently £25.98 per case) and the VAT (currently at 20%) on the total of the wine cost and the duty.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the bottle size you want. Even if a wine is only listed in one size, you can order any bottle or case size you want if the property supplies it, but you must order the case/bottle size you require and check that the correct size has been invoiced.
Additional charges are as follows:-
- +£15 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£15 per case of 6 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£35 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£45 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.