Blackberry, black cherry, crushed stone and graphite. Lead pencil, too. It’s full-bodied with juicy, chewy tannins. Vertical and layered with lovely length. Quite plush. Chewy tannins at the end. Cabernet sauvignon driven. Showing excellent potential.

The flagship 2023 Château Lynch-Bages is based on 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot, resting in 75% new French oak. One of the biggest, richest wines in the vintage, it’s deep purple-hued and offers up some classic Lynch richness in its smoky black fruits, smoked earth, graphite, and tobacco-driven aromatics. These carry to a full-bodied Pauillac with ample mid-palate depth, ripe, building tannins, and a great finish. While it's clearly in the lively, fresher style of the vintage, it's a serious, structured, incredibly impressive Pauillac with tons to love. It's not far off the style of the 2019.

The 2023 Lynch-Bages is a dark brooding wine. In so many vintages Lynch-Bages is a wine of sensuality but in 2023 it is quite the powerhouse. Formidable tannins wrap around a core of black fruit spice menthol licorice and gravel. This is a somber introspective Lynch-Bages with a ton of Cabernet Sauvignon character. I can't wait to taste this from bottle. 2033-2073

Blackberries, black cherries, licorice, mint, flowers, camphor, and cigar wrappers produce an attention-seeking perfume. On the palate, the wine is racy, fruity, intense, long, and deep. There is a strong beginning, middle, and end, with a finish that lasts. This is a true Pauillac. The wine blends 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. 13.7% ABV. 3.75 pH. The harvest took place September 13 - October 4. Drink from 2028-2060.

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2023 Lynch-Bages prances out with vibrant notes of crushed blackcurrants and black raspberries plus fragrant hints of violets, iron ore, bay leaves, and fragrant soil with a touch of graphite. The medium-bodied palate delivers impressive tension, with a sturdy backbone of grainy tannins and an earthy finish. The blend is 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot, with pH 3.75 and TPI 95.

As usual one of the chunkier broader-shouldered wines of the Médoc the 2023 Lynch-Bages exhibits aromas of dark berries and cassis mingled with pencil shavings licorice and pipe tobacco framed by creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied rich and layered it's deep concentrated and generously extracted with plenty of youthfully chewy tannin to carry it along in the cellar. The 2023 is a blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon 24% Merlot 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot.

The 2023 Lynch-Bages takes some time to really settle so I gave it 5-10 minutes in the glass. On the nose glossy black fruit mixes with touches of cassis graphite violets and blood orange perhaps demonstrating more horsepower than I anticipated. The palate is medium-bodied with fine saturated tannins. There is a lovely symmetry to this Pauillac (not unlike Latour) armed with a cashmere texture and plenty of backbone on the finish even though I would not describe it as a "grippy" Lynch-Bages. There’s plenty of graphite character on the aftertaste. Excellent.