CHÂTEAU LYNCH BAGES
2017 5ème Cru Classé Pauillac
70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. Some oak on the nose. Savoury flavour on the palate, accompanied by sweet dark concentrated fruit, nicely tiered red and black berries - a summer pudding blend of flavours. Quite powerful and energetic. Lots of tiny grippy tannins. Concentrated but fresh. A real treat. Rating: 92 L&S (Apr 2018)
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The 2017 Lynch-Bages has a pure bouquet with ebullient black cherry and blueberry fruit. The oak is neatly integrated, precise and controlled. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit. It's pretty dense with graphite-infused black fruit. This clams up towards a finish that is a little more austere than other recent vintages, although I admire its focus and structure. Great potential. Tasted at the Lynch-Bages vertical at the château. Drinking range: 2023 - 2050 Rating: 93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jul 2023)
Kicks things off with black pepper spice and curls of violet aromatis, majoring on the floral side of Cabernet Sauvignon; This is great quality, sappy tannins, with enticing layers of blueberry and raspberry fruits. A relatively early-drinking Lynch Bages, but one with poise and confidence. 75% new oak. Drinking range: 2024 - 2040 Rating: 94 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2022)
The 2017 Lynch-Bages is such a pretty and engaging wine; as always, it is a wine of pure and total seduction. Lush, open-knit and very pretty with ripe red and purplish fruit. There is a slight bit of edginess in the tannin that needs to be resolved, but cellaring should take care of that. Drinking range: 2025 - 2047 Rating: 94 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Mar 2020)
The 2017 Lynch-Bages is aged for 18 months in 75% new French oak. It has a very pure bouquet with blackberry, bilberry, freshly picked wild mint and a touch of iodine. It feels very primal compared to its peers and certainly requires plenty of bottle age. The palate is sweet and generous on the entry thanks to the supple tannin. Moderate acidity, quite opulent for Lynch-Bages but that is reined in towards the finish. I would have liked a little more complexity and delineation overall, but it should drink well for 15 to 20 years. Drinking range: 2023 - 2040 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Feb 2020)
The 2017 Lynch Bages was picked from 18 September with the young Merlot vines and finishing on 30 September. It was cropped at around 50hl/ha. It is aged in 75% new oak for 18 months. It offers good intensity on the nose, not as precise or as mineral-driven as the 2016 last year, with cedar and pencil shaving infusing the black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, very refined, a touch of white pepper and cedar with impressive depth on the finish. This will be an approachable Lynch Bages, probably pre-destined to be overshadowed by the magnificent (if nascent) 2016 but it will certainly give 20 to 25 years of drinking pleasure. Tasted four times with consistent notes. Drinking range: 2022 - 2042 Rating: 91-93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2018)
Deepest crimson. Lovely classic aroma of cassis and graphite with an attractive dusty/mineral overlay. Deep and still elegant, with refined dark fruit, super-fine tannins and a long harmonious finish. Shapely and elegant. Drinking range: 2027 - 2040 Rating: 17 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2018)
They've had their foot on the extraction pedal here, but the extremely dark fruit has great finesse. It is broad-shouldered and savoury-edged, and each time I tasted this wine it seemed a little richer and more complete, over-delivering for the year. This is going to age extremely well. 2% Petit Verdot makes up the blend. 75% new oak. Drinking range: 2025 - 2038 Rating: 95 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2018)
The 2017 Lynch Bages is beautifully done and has an upfront, charming, yet concentrated style. Crème de cassis, graphite, crushed rocks, and plenty of spice characteristics give way to a medium to full-bodied Pauillac that has beautifully ripe tannin, solid mid-palate depth, and notable purity of fruit. It’s not massive but just sings for its purity, balance, and expansive texture. Rating: 92-94 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Apr 2018)
This is an excellent Lynch that starts off slowly and then drives at the end with dark fruit and hints of hazelnuts. Strong and focused tannins. A beautiful young wine. Rating: 95-96 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2018)
There’s really good flesh here for the vintage, with cassis, plum and blackberry compote flavors that are a step ahead of the pack in concentration. Light charcoal and iron notes score the finish, which is racy and fresh. Textbook Pauillac. Rating: 92-95 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2018)
This has smoked red cherry fruit in the nose, moving into darker veins, with touches of damson and blackcurrant. There follows a convincing start to the palate, showing a crushed cherry fruit intensity, with a confident medium-bodied texture. This is fresh, cool, poised, bright, with a supple cherry stone and plum stone presence, showing a charming base of velvety tannin, along with a firm grip in the finish. A good substance here, good balance too, integrated and correct. A quite smartly styled wine which works within the confines of the vintage, with a nice potential for the cellar, although I was expecting a little more punch from an estate carrying this sort of reputation. Rating: 91-93 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2018)
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.