Château Lynch-Bages

Although classified as a fifth growth, Château Lynch-Bages is one of those properties which illustrates the single most important failing of the 1855 Classification of the Médoc; although some aspects of the classification remain quite relevant today, many do not, and the track record of over-performance exhibited by a number of châteaux in the lower ranks of the classification, Château Lynch-Bages one among them, is one such aberration.

When I first set about learning about Bordeaux, Château Lynch-Bages was an insider’s wine; those with more experienced palates than my own at my local tasting group – surely the best way to learn about these increasingly expensive wines – would rave about Lynch-Bages, or “Lunch-Bags” as it was affectionately known. These old sages clearly knew a good wine when they tasted it, and had long recognised that under the tenure of the Cazes family this grand cru classé estate, ranked as a cinquième cru, was in fact turning out wines more befitting of a deuxième cru. Indeed, some regarded a number of older vintages from this estate as capable of challenging the first growths, when tasted alongside.

Some decades on from those formative experiences, Château Lynch-Bages remains in the hands of the Cazes family, and quality still hits the occasional (or dare I say it frequent) high, although sadly it is no longer the insider’s wine it was once. The wines today are distinctive blends of layered dark fruit, tobacco, slate minerals and cedary notes which in combination should send shivers down the spine of any Pauillac acolyte, and the estate’s renown reflects this level of quality. Before I come to the estate today though, its wines produced in a glittering palace of glass and steel on a crest of the Bages plateau just outside the town of Pauillac, I will first explore the estate’s history. If any of the words that follow feel familiar, it is perhaps because of the estate’s shared history with Château Lynch-Moussas.

Origins

The origins of the estate of course pre-date the arrival of the Lynch family; ancient documents described the lands of Batges [sic] at the entrance to Pauillac as long ago as the 16th century. There were vines planted on this gravelly croup at the time, and it was the notaire Jean Déjean and his brother, a wine merchant named Pey, who began to gather together the various parcels to create a larger estate. This estate, which came to be known as the Domaine de Bages, was passed through at least two generations on this family, first to Jean’s son Pierre Déjean, then to his grandson Bernard Déjean.

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