Chateau Lynch Bages Wine Tasting Back to 1975

Saturday, May 28, 2022 - 07:30 PM

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"This is very old wine. I hope you will like it."
Count Dracula in Dracula (1931)

And were drinking some really old wines at this tasting back to the 1975 vintage Bordeaux on the table for this “Once in a Lifetime” vintage Bordeaux wine tasting featuring on of the top Chateau from Pauillac Chateau Lynch Bages. 

 

Join us as we take down another 12 bottles from this super 5th growth of Pauillac along with special meal prepared by Chef Toni Lampasone to accompany the tasting wines, the fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $495+ tax, for reservations call 954=523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

 

Wine from Château Lynch-Bages, Grand Cru Classé Pauillac 

Chateau Lynch Bages Bordeaux Tasting back to the 1975 Vintage
Saturday, May 28th, 2022
7:30 PM

2020 BLANC DE LYNCH BAGES BORDEAUX
1975 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac
1982 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac
1989 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac
1990 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac
1994 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac
2000 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac
2001 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac
2012 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac
2015 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac
2017 Echo De Lynch Bages Pauillac
2018 Echo De Lynch Bages Pauillac

Menu
Selection of Cheese and Charcuterie
Grilled Vegetable Salad with Sundried Tomato and Balsamic Vinaigrette
Duck and Smoked Mozzarella Ravioli with sundried Tomato Browned Butter
Rare Seared NY Sirloin Served with Truffle Fries and Bordeaux Natural Sauce
Canelés de Bordeaux with Pineapple Rum Sauce

 

The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $495.00 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

 

A bit about Chateau Lynch Bages:

It has been called "Pauillac's sleeper chateau", for in some years it has been what wine connoisseurs call "a sleeper" – a wine from a lesser estate that rises far above its status and competes with the best of its class.  The status of Chateau Lynch-Bages has been a matter of great controversy in Bordeaux for several decades.  The sixty great estates of the Medoc, Bordeaux's greatest red wine district, were classified into five categories 130 years ago.  It was called the 1855 Grand Cru Classification.  To this day there isn't much dispute about the quality of the five wines in the "Premier Cru."  However, controversy reigns about the relative positions of the other fifty some chateaux in the other four Crus.  The theory was that a wine in the Second Cru category was better than a Third...and so on.  Lynch-Bages was classified a Fifth Cru, but it has been producing wines of Second Cru quality in the last twenty years. (It has even rivaled the First Crus in great years like 1961, 1966, 1970, and 1975.)

Chateau Lynch-Bages is located in the sleepy town of Pauillac, the little village that also is responsible for the great chateaux of Latour, Lafite, and Mouton.  It takes its name from a former proprietor, an Irishman named Lynch, who was once the mayor of Bordeaux.  In fact it seems the chateau has a tradition of mayor-proprietors.  Andre Cazes, who has now turned over the administration of the chateau to his thirty-year old son, Jean-Michel Cazes, was recently the mayor of Pauillac.  In the 1930's Jean-Michel's grandfather, J.C. Cazes, began building the solid reputation Lynch-Bages now enjoys.  In the middle fifties Alexis Lichine wrote of several tastings conducted by the leading Bordelais merchants and winebrokers in which Lynch-Bages finished first – besting the greatest of the classified estates.  Perhaps the watershed year for Lynch-Bages was 1961 - a year many consider the "vintage of the century" in Bordeaux.  In that year the chateau produced one of the greatest wines of the vintage.  During the sixties and the seventies Lynch-Bages commanded a price equivalent to the best of the second Cru and prompted Alexis Lichine to write in his monumental Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits: "That this fine vineyard is still classed a Fifth Growth indicates the obsolescence of the 1855 Classification."  In a tasting of 21 Bordeaux from the very good 1979 vintage conducted by The Wine Spectator in December of 1983, Lynch-Bages finished third ahead of many highly regarded second growths.  Jean-Michel Cazes has said that the most frequent (and annoying) question asked of him by Americans is why his wine - classified a Fifth – commands the price of a Second.  To connoisseurs the answer is obvious.

In 1977 the entire winery of the chateau was refurbished with modern vinification equipment.  Lynch-Bages is a fairly large estate with some 200 acres under vines and an average production of some 30,000 cases.  The usual cepage (selection of grapes) is about 75% Cabernet; 15% Merlot; and 10% Cabernet Franc.  This seems to produce a meaty, fleshy, robust wine characteristic of a good Pauillac.  Similarities have been drawn to Mouton - perhaps only the finesse of Mouton is missing.  Lynch-Bages also seems to mature earlier - not being vinified with such monster, harsh tannins which other classic Pauillacs like Mouton and Latour often exhibit in youth.

1983 has produced another great year in Bordeaux – although not of the incredible quality we witnessed in 1982.  We think the extraordinary 1982 Lynch-Bages may have been the greatest wine ever produced at this chateau.  Nevertheless, the 1983 is an outstanding wine and again one of the leading wines of the Medoc.  The nose of this wine is dominated with nuances of cedar, new oak, cigar boxes, and ripe fruit...a delight indeed.  On the palate the wine is full-bodied with lots of rich fruit and spicy oak.  On the finish the wine is somewhat harsh, moderately tannic, oaky, and lingering.  This wine is not as precocious as the 1982 at the same stage and can stand a good five to ten years of aging before it reaches its peak sometime in the last half of the 1990's.  Again we must stress that we feel this wine can be enjoyed at this early stage; however, it will definitely improve. July 1986.

Chateau Lynch-Bages also makes a tiny amount of white wine, it is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadet.  This stunning wine is in such short supply you will rarely see it in the market.  The first four vintages of the 21st century have been outstanding for Bordeaux lovers, never before in the history of this great region have they experienced four outstanding vintages in a row. 

The newest wine from Lynch Bages is simply entitled Pauillac and you could consider this to be a third wine or just another wine entirely.  Aside from the classified growths of 1855, there are only 6 Cru Bourgeois classified chateau from the Pauillac appellation with Chateau Pibran at the head of the pack. With only 6 chateaux classified as Cru Bourgeois, Pauillac has the least amount of Cru Bourgeois estates of any other major Bordeaux appellation that is why this wine has emereged from the Cazes family to give you a taste of the Pauillac appellation at a reasonable price.