2021 Château Lynch-Bages, Pauillac, Bordeaux

67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc.

Deep ruby. Black fruit, liquorice and a touch of black pepper on the nose – this is a brooding wine for the vintage. Chewy, mouth-coating tannins dominate the palate, this is a big, bold and atypical wine for the vintage. Richer structure and more density than most. This is laced with the property’s individual character and is impressive. The acid profile of the vintage remains, but this is a very good effort. One that can be laid down in this vintage.

Drink 2029 - 2049

The 2021 Lynch-Bages is one of the vintage's bigger, broader-shouldered wines, offering up aromas of crème de cassis, plums and spices, framed by a generous application of creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, dense and chunky, with a velvety attack that segues into a layered core of fruit framed by generously extracted tannins, it concludes with a long, lusty finish. Fully 40 hectares of this estate is now cultivated organically, principally those parcels that adjoin the houses of Pauillac. As is almost invariably the case with this estate, it will repay a bit of patience.

Drink 2031 - 2051

The Grand Vin 2021 Château Lynch-Bages ratchets up everything, offering a rich, powerful, almost full-bodied style as well as gorgeous notes of blackcurrants, smoked tobacco, spice, and hints of cassis. It might be the biggest, richest wine in the vintage and has a great mid-palate, impressive density, building tannins, and a great, great finish.

The 2021 Lynch-Bages is rather sombre today. Black fruit, mocha, liquorice and chocolate are all amplified in this decidedly muscular wine from a cool year. This is a distinctly cool-climate Lynch-Bages built on power, with less of its usual flash.

Drink 2031 - 2061

This is impressive, reduction on the first nose but it clears to show gentle smoked oak, bitter cocoa beans and liqourice, giving balance to the fresh acidities that stud the blackberry and raspberry fruits. This is powerful, with a structure that feels similar to the 2014 or the 2008 - a little subdued and austere, but with ageing potential. A high tannin index of 90IPT. Harvest September 27 Lynch through to October 9. One of the best in Pauillac, finishing up with chewy tannins.

Drink 2028 - 2042

The 2021 Lynch-Bages has a wonderful bouquet with intense blackberry and bilberry fruit, retaining the estuarine element I remarked upon from barrel. The oak here is seamlessly integrated and gains complexity with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins, very supple and focused, a little more peppery toward the finish with impressive grip and depth in the context of the vintage. This is a superb achievement in a tricky season.

Drink 2027 - 2055

67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc.

This is really cool to smell, with lead pencil shavings, iron filings and oyster shells. Blackcurrants, too. Full to medium body with layers of firm tannins, but a dusty and powdery texture, too. Lovely finish.

3% Cabernet Sauvignon completes the blend. 3.72pH. Ageing 75% new barrels.

Sweet blackcurrant fruit on the nose, softly jammy and expressive. You can really feel the ripeness here, grapes have full maturity and this is plush, mouthfilling and plump with chewy tannins - more opulent and perfumed than others also with more power and body. Tannins are mouthfilling and you get the stone minerality and the Cabernet freshness that really takes over giving this a sense of tension and grip. A really characterful and expressive Pauillac where the tannins and acidity perfectly compliment each other with the muscular and concentrated fruit also giving a multi-faceted dimension.

Drink 2026 - 2048