Château Lynch-Moussas: Tasting & Drinking
With a recent history of investment and replanting it is only natural to expect a track record of improvement over recent years, just as we see with Château Duhart-Milon, another Pauillac estate with a similar recent history. Indeed, reports indicate that this is the case with Château Lynch-Moussas also, with very recent vintages, such as the 2000, 2003 and 2005, being the most successful.
Certainly older vintages have been persistently disappointing; this was the case with the 1997 vintage, a rather lean wine with piquant acidity and unusual flavours. But this was a very weak vintage for Bordeaux, probably the least worthy vintage of the last ten years, painfully so for the consumer as many wines were released at overly high prices. To judge the estate fairly we should look to more recent and perhaps more favourable vintages. The 2001 and 2004 both show that Lynch-Moussas is capable of producing good wines, early drinking perhaps, but attractive and certainly good buys at the right price. In more recent vintages the estate has put in a solid, but not exciting performance. In my experience, these are wines to drink only if the price is truly very tempting.
To conclude, it is unlikely that Château Lynch-Moussas will ever challenge the great châteaux of Pauillac, of which there are a good number, but these wines still have a place in any well balanced cellar. And with the likelihood of better and better wines, as vines mature and the cellar sees continued investment from Philippe Castéja, Château Lynch-Moussas remains an estate to watch. (27/3/07, updated 28/8/13)
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