13 Jun 2023

Released for sale en primeur this morning at £635 per six bottles, 2022 Château Lynch Bages receives scores as high as 98-99 points from James Suckling. 

"..sculpted and full of character. Intense, not just a reflection of the vintage but in the increasing concentration found in Lynch Bages over the past decade...austere right now, with shoulders and muscles, but I am fully on board. One to wait for." Jane Anson

"The 2022 Lynch-Bages shows all the classic Lynch layers, but dialed up to the maximum."  Antonio Galloni

Customers of a certain age will remember when a bottle of 'Lunch Bags' was as understated and reliable as a Turnbull & Asser shirt with slightly frayed cuffs; a sound purchase that would stand up in any company, but this châteaux has been aiming at the top-tier of quality for some years.  With the 2022 vintage, it looks like it has arrived.  

Jane Anson's tasting note sums up the style of this new release, which is architectural, muscular, and precise.  It was tricky to judge when tasting it from cask, there was so much power and tannic structure, but there was no mistaking the quality.  In that respect, there is still something old-fashioned about Lynch, a wine that needs at least a dozen years before it will reveal its full potential.

Stock is limited, so please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to order.

 

 

 

 

 

One of six enormous 100 hectolitre elevator vats which bring the wine up from for pumping-over and racking ('delestage'), removing the need for pumps which can reduce aroma and flavour in the finished wine.

 

Offered en primeur landing spring 2025.

To order, e-mail us at sales@richardkihl.ltd.uk

 

Producer Profile

Château Lynch-Bages, Cru Classé Pauillac

Château Lynch-Bages is a Cinquièmes Cru Classé in Pauillac, founded in 1749 by Thomas Lynch in the villages of Bages. Lynch's father John has emigrated in 1691 from Galway in Ireland to Bordeaux.  The estate changed hands in the nineteenth century and was eventually purchased in the 1930s by Jean-Charles Cazes.  In 1972, his grandson Jean-Michel Cazes took over, followed by his son Jean-Charles. The technical director is Nicholas Labenne.

The 90 hectares are just outside Pauillac itself, with the vineyard on the Bages gravel ridge, looking down on the Gironde, planted to 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot.  Around 25,000 cases are made in an average year.   The second wine is 'Echo de Lynch-Bages'.

Construction of a new winery began in 2018 and 2020 is the first vintage to be made in it.

See Jean-Charles Cazes introduce the new winery at Lynch-Bages: