1988 | Château Lynch-Bages | Pauillac

Complex aromas of dark chocolate, currant and cigar box. Full-bodied, with chewy tannins and a mouth-puckering finish. Still very concentrated and chewy. Finishes with loads of ripe fruits, tobacco and cedar.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: One of the big surprises is how delicious this wine has turned out. It is a beautiful, classic claret. Dark ruby-colored with purple hues, it reveals aromas of dried herbs, smoke, leather, grilled meats, and copious black cherry and currant fruit.

• Vinous: The 1988 Lynch Bages is a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot and 11% Cabernet Franc, plus 2% Petit Verdot that was picked at the beginning of October. It has a clean fresh bouquet with ample pure blackberry and raspberry notes, touches of graphite and tobacco, vibrant and very satisfying. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grain tannin, crisp acidity, a little meatiness and cedar creeping in towards the finish and long and fresh from start to finish. This is a fine Lynch Bages from a period when Jean-Michel Cazes seemed to do no wrong. This would be one of my picks from the vintage given its market price. Tasted at the château.

Producer Information

Château Lynch-Bages is situated in the Pauillac commune of the Médoc region in Bordeaux. The grand vin, which is made predominantly from Cabernet Sauvignon, is known for its structure and intensity, and can age for 20 years or more. It ranks among the best in the appellation. The property in the village of Bages takes the other part of its name from Thomas Lynch, a Bordeaux merchant of Irish lineage who owned the property from 1749 to 1824. It was rated a fifth growth in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855, although the reputation of the property, now in the hands of the Cazes family, soared from 1945 after a string of excellent vintages. The vineyards are situated on a plateau west of Pauillac town on gravel, chalk and sand soils. There are 90 hectares (220 acres) of vineyards, 75 percent of which are planted with Cabernet Sauvignon. The rest is planted to Merlot, Cabernet Franc and a small amount of Petit Verdot. Fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless-steel vats with extensive remontage (pumping-over) for concentration and color intensity. Lynch-Bages is aged for around 15 months in oak barrels, rougly two thirds of which are new. A notable feature of the estate is the old vat-house with its traditional slatted floors, ropes, pulleys and buckets, which give the advantages of gravity flow, a process incorporated into many modern winery designs. The estate makes a second wine, Echo de Lynch-Bages, which until 2008 was known as Château Haut-Bages Averous (the name taken from a former Pauillac estate owned by the family). The rare Blanc de Lynch-Bages, made since 1990, is an oak-fermented, lees-aged white Bordeaux blend from 6 ha (15 acres) of vines in eight different vineyard parcels to the west of the estate. It is sold as AOP Bordeaux. Owners of the Michel Lynch brand, other Bordeaux properties in the portfolio of Societe Jean-Michel Cazes include Cordeillan-Bages in Pauillac, Ormes de Pez in Saint-Estephe, Villa Bel-Air in the Graves. Elsewhere the family also owns estates in Minervois and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and (in partnership with Jorge Roquette of Quinta do Crasto) the Roquette & Cazes label in the Douro region of Portugal.

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