1999 Château Lynch-Bages- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (5/17/2017)
This was my one and only bottle of this wine. Pop and pour to drink before and during a pot roast dinner. The wine definitely had a brownish tinge to it. On the nose very light floral notes. The wine was nicely balanced with maybe a bit more acid than I prefer. On the palate graphite with muted fruit. This was a very pleasant bottle but certainly not a wow bottle. I would say it is time to drink these up. (90 pts.)
A shame it was starting to brown like the pot roast you ate it with. I love Lynch-Bages. The 2014 was my fave of the recent UGC offerings. I’ve never had one over 15 years old though.
Do they typically age the way this one did, in your experience?
This is the last bottle of a mixed case of older Lynch Bages I purchased 10+ years ago. They ranged in vintage from '85 to '99. With few exceptions they were all delicious. The '89 was the standout. I would say that the '99 noted hear was in the lower 1/3 of the bottles in the case. The '85 was DOA, I rated the rest as follows '88 92, '89 95-98, '95 93-94, 96 94-96,'98 93 and '99 90.
LB ages extremely well. I’ve been buying on release sine the '82 vintage. My '85’s are long gone but the '86, ‘88, 89, 90, 95, 96 still need time. My 82’, '99 and '01’s are in a really good place right now. The '99’s and 01’s were fantastic QPR’s @ less than $350 for a case.
We had a bottle of 96 earlier this week at my Favorite restaurant in SF - La Folie. It needed a vigorous decant and an hour in the decanter to come around. Still was drinking young. A great wine.
I think I finished my 99 Lynch’s up by age 10. It was a drinkers vintage, and they were likable in their youth. As Jeff mentions, they were pretty good value EP. I have not had recent examples though, and hardly have any vintages left at all.
Pontet Canet seems like they are making the better wines among comparably classed/priced Pauillacs.