2015 Lynch Bages

Making a mockery of its Fifth Growth status, Lynch-Bages produces brilliant Cabernet which has a true Pauillac character and real ageability. Tightly coiled amd dense, needs swirling and working to open up. Dark fruits, minerality, gravel and cedar. Hugely packed mouthfeel with perfectly ripe blackcurrant fruit and bright touches of wild strawberry. Dense but fine tannins, vibrant acidity, fleshy mid-palate and long-sustained finish. Very good balance of power and elegance. (70% Cabernet Savuginon, 24% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot.)

Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2015 Lynch Bages offers up crushed black berries, black cherries and dried herbs with an earthy undercurrent. The medium-bodied palate is firm and taut with lively fruit and a chewy finish. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Interim Issue Mid-February 2018, The Wine Advocate

The 2015 Lynch-Bages has a very complex bouquet with layers of blackberry and bilberry fruit, crushed stone, cedar and graphite. It becomes earthier with aeration, with a hint of cough candy in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-boned tannins. This is intense, backward, almost surly, yet the finish has incredible precision and persistence. Not to be underrated. Tasted at the Lynch-Bages vertical at the château. July 2023

This is packed with juicy currant, black cherry and blackberry fruit carried by warm stone and graphite notes. Offers lovely sweet spice hints through the finish, which is fleshy and integrated. Really sappy and intense, yet the smooth structure lets it all glide through beautifully.

– James Molesworth (WineSpectator.com, April 2016)

Brambly and attractive ripe blackberries and red-plum aromas with some floral accents, too. The palate has a very plush, polished and regal shape as tannins frame up a core of ripe black fruit. Succulent, impressive finish. Best from 2022.

Much deeper crimson. Minerals and spice - a very winning combo - on the nose. But bone dry on the end after some pretty dry tannins. Very solid but needs time. Drier than many vintages. Still pretty tight. Drink 2026-2040.

– jancisrobinson.com, Apr 2016

One of the finest Pauillacs of 2015, Lynch-Bages is rich, racy and voluptuous. A rush of dark red and purplish stone fruit, mint, new leather, spice and blood orange give the 2015 a very decidedly exotic character that is impossible to miss. Raspberry jam, mocha, new leather and expressive floral notes appear with time in the glass, rounding things out nicely. Even though the 2015 is quite forward and open at this stage, the wine has plenty of stuffing as well as the underlying structure to support many years of exceptional drinking. This is a stellar showing for Lynch-Bages. vinous.com, February 2018

Dark in color, the wine is powerful, deep, dark, concentrated and full bodied. The palate enjoys layers of fruits that are concentrated, long, fresh and vibrant. There is a great, crisp, crunchy quality to the fruits.. This will require at least a decade of age before it really starts to show its all.

The inky colored 2015 Château Lynch-Bages is a seriously impressive Pauillac that’s up with the crème de la crème of the appellation in 2015. Notes of ripe blackcurrants, caramelized cherries, tobacco leaf and a kiss of lead pencil all emerge from this textbook Pauillac that has medium to full-bodied richness, notable concentration, and building structure. Made from 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot that saw 75% new barrels, it needs 5-7 years of cellaring and will be one of the longer-lived wines from the Médoc.

This is powerful and deep with high but careful extraction and firm tannins. At this stage it feels so much younger and more closed than almost anything else I’ve tasted from this vintage in Pauillac. This is going for a firm, impressive impact and it manages it, but it lacks some generosity in the fruit character that it has in spades in 2016. 2% Petit Verdot. 75% new oak. One-third malolactic fermentation in vats, two-thirds in barrel. Drinking Window 2025 - 2040
Tasted by Jane Anson (at Bordeaux, 14 Nov 2018)
Part of Understanding Pauillac through the 2015 vintage