Chateau Lynch-Bages 2015

Professional Ratings

• 96 Wine Enthusiast
  This vintage was ideal for the rich style that this estate has made its own. This wine is full bodied and ripe with black-currant and dark berry fruits. The tannins fall into the cushioned wine with ease and richness. Of course, the wine should be aged, so wait until 2026.
  Cellar Selection
• 95 James Suckling
  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.
• 94 Wine Spectator
  This has an ample core of plum, fig and blackberry compote flavors, underlined liberally with graphite and smoldering tobacco notes. Fleshy and focused, with ample grip through the juniper- and tar-accented finish. Well-built. Best from 2023 through 2038.
• 94 Decanter
  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.
• 94 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  Always on my radar screen as wines to buy, I have always found this 5th Growth to be under-classified. While many in the wine trade place this wine in the 2nd Growth, I see it comfortably in the 3rd Growth arena, and indeed this wine has sometimes overtaken some of the highly vaunted 1st Growths. The 2015 Château Lynch Bages is handsome in so many ways. This wine exhibits beautifully attired black currants and a shading of oak. Enjoy its perfectly claret disposition with a juicy ribeye. (Tasted: January 25, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
• 94 Jeb Dunnuck
  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.
  Rating: 94+
• 92 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  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.
  Rating: 92+