1970 Château Lynch-Bages, Pauillac, Grand Cru Classé, Médoc, Red Bordeaux, France.
What a great surprise this beautiful and wonderfully drinking 1970 Château Lynch-Bages, which while showing its age, it gave a delicious performance with silky layers of dark fruit still very much leading the way on the soft medium bodied palate. The nose is slightly meat, delicately floral, with hints of autumn leafs, loamy earth and cedary spice, providing a nice gateway to dried cherry, stewed plum, currant and fig fruit. THere’s a fine veil of tannin that helps keep these structured and the dark garnet and brick red color is appealing and the finish is lengthy and lingers with wilted rose, anise and pipe tobacco. Château Lynch-Bages is located just outside the town of Pauillac, with just over 200 acres, set on a gravelly ridge overlooking the Gironde estuary. This well-drained site consists mainly of deep gravel beds over a limestone soils and it is planted mainly with red wine grapes, including 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. The winemaking is classic with maceration and full fermentation, primary and Malo-lactic, in stainless steel, after which the wines mature in French oak for close to 15 months, with close to 50% new oak in the Grand Vin.
The Fifth Growth Lynch-Bages Château (1855 Grand Cru Classé), overlooks the Gironde estuary and stretches over a beautiful gravelly hilltop. Ownership of Château Lynch-Bages, however, remains with the Cazes family. It’s widely noted that Château Lynch-Bages original ownerThomas Lynch was a descendant of the Tribes of Galway. His father John Lynch emigrated in 1691 from Galway, Ireland to the Bordeaux area and he inherited an estate in the village of Bages through his wife, Elizabeth, in 1749. The foundation of Château Lynch-Bages, as in that same year, Lynch then later passed it on to his son, Jean-Baptiste, upon his marriage in 1779. Jean-Baptiste handed over the supervision of Lynch-Bages to his brother Michel who maintained responsibility for the Château’s wines until 1824. The Lynch family then sold it to a Swiss wine merchant, whose family controlled the estate for over a hundred years. The Cazes family first took on Lynch-Bages in 1934 and while they have had partnerships with outside companies, they remain the guardians of this famous Château today. It is of interest that In 2017, the Cazes family acquired Château Haut-Batailley, a neighboring 1855 Grand Cru Classé estate in Pauillac, making for a fabulous set from this legendary terroir. I was, as noted above, impressed by this 1970 and it reminds me that well aged wines are prized treasures.
($257 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive