I was just thinking - I have spent half my life drinking Pauillac … and still have trouble spelling the commune!
You are not alone 
99.9% I use two “i”
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I got very mixed messages from the original post. Neither Lynch nor Pichon Lalande strike me as being particularly modern, but the Right Bank wines which should have appealed and were relatively modern, did not.
I think you might be better off just tasting, and the most cost effective way to do this, is with other people. It will be worth the investment to buy 8-10 of these wines with the same number of people, and taste.
Just for the hell of it, I will recommend eight left bank wines
Issan
Rauzan Segla
Brane Cantenac
Haut Bailly
Pichon Baron
Pichon Lalande
Ducru Beaucaillou
Leoville Barton
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I have to support the Lynch Bages recommendations. I have collected it dating back to the early ‘80s and it is a staple with meals that call for a Cab dominant blend. It is typically 70+% Cab, but has a rounder, softer edge than typical Napa Cabs. Great structure, abundant fruit but not monolithic.
I concur with others that you should look to vintage more than producer, especially as Pichon baron, the producer you say was your epiphany, is a high quality mainstream Pauillac that is not particularly known for being Napa styled. Vintage variation is huge in Bordeaux and can take wines from crisp and old-school to full and fruit-forward. The 2015 vintage was more California styled
I would backfill 2009 (especially!) and 2015 and invest in 2019. 2009 is an especially full bodied, smooth, warm, but well balanced vintage that appeals to Napa drinkers and is entering early maturity soon. But it is getting expensive.
For producers, Pauillac is tough because expensive - grand puy lacoste is your best QPR bet there. Pichon Baron is very reliably good. In other regions, try Meyney, Branaire Ducru, and numerous others for excellent wines in the $50 range
Fonbadet is a superb property (and super consistent over the years). CLERC MILON if you are looking for something shiny and new world, and my current favorite up and comer (it’s actually a classified growth); PEDESCLAUX. Pedesclaux produced horrible wines for literally decades, but a regime change has kicked out some superb wines the last 5-6 vintages (I adore the 2015).
Pichon Baron 1989 and Lo Louviere 1990 were epiphany wines for me as well back in the mid-90s. Post-law school, after a clerkship in San Fran, I was beholden to Napa. Was drinking Caymus (back when Caymus was great), Dalla Valle, Silverado, et al, and one Thanksgiving weekend, we had a big dinner party at my folks, and were were drinking CA v Bordeaux, and Bordeaux definitely prevailed for me. And yes, the wines were babies, but you could still tell.
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This is an excellent point. The main thing I took away from my little Burgundy experiment was, that Burgundy seems to be all about the producer, but Bordeaux is definitely more about the vintage. There is much less variation between the classified growths in all of Bordeaux from same vintage, than there is between producers even from the same village in Burgundy.
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How would you come to this conclusion? Rauzan Segla, Rauzan Gassies and Lascombes are second growths in Margaux…to suggest that the three are at all similar in any given vintage is crazy. Also, you’re basing this assessment of Burgundy off of a comparison of 3 bottles of wine?
Let me rephrase that a little. I was talking about style, not quality. The 2 you mention seem to consistently underperform for a 2nd growth. But I would say identifying Rauzan Gassies blind from a Lascombes would be very difficult.
You can always find exemptions from any rule. 2016 Pontet-Canet bats with 2nd growths from that year. What I meant was, yes there are obviously different quality levels even within the classifications but stylistically - barring some outliers - Bordeaux is much more homogenous than Burgundy seems to be. And no, it’s not based on 3 bottles, it’s based on multiple comments from people which much more experience in that region.
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I don’t really agree with this. You can certainly be more selective about vintages in Bordeaux because there’s no risk of losing an allocation, but over the years I’ve moved from buying more widely in selected vintages to buying from a smaller set of estates in more vintages, just as I do in Burgundy and other regions. I find I like to compare vintages of my favorite Chateaux, and I like the character of various vintages even if they aren’t “the best.”
I think we do agree, I’m just not communicating my point very well. I was trying to say Bordeaux seems to have less variation between producers within the same perceived quality and vintage than in Burgundy.
In short, I know that it is very likely I will enjoy a 2018 classified growth Bordeaux simply because of the vintage. There aren’t many producers that I have tried that I do not enjoy. Whether they are 92 or 96 points, they are small variations. If we go to hard years like 2011 or 2013, that gets much murkier but I was being very generic in my comment.
Burgundy seems to be a much bigger minefield even on so called good vintages. And that is not just me saying it, that comes from multiple people with infinitely more experience than I have in that region.
Really? I think Lascombes would be one of the easiest wines to identify in a blind tasting of Margaux - just pick the most overextracted, scorched, slickest wine - and that’s probably going to be Lascombes, a poster child of the worst kind of Rollandization. Full disclosure, I’ve never had a Rauzan-Gassies, but from reading notes by others with far more experience, it’s a pleasant if completely unmemorable early-drinking claret, akin to a wine from a neglected Cru Bourgeois. Not the same at all…
Agreed, fundamentally different wines. Lascombes is not Bordeaux.
I think I agree with Mikko here, but not because there aren’t differences between producers in Bordeaux. There certainly are. It’s just that producer differences in Burgundy are ENORMOUS, greater than in any other wine region I have found. Producer style differences in Burgundy can make for differences in wine style as great as the differences between right and left bank Bordeaux, including if the grapes are coming from nearby locations. Burgundy contains multitudes.
Of course it is. It’s just not made in a style that you enjoy.
Yes this is exactly what I was trying to say.
Perhaps this is a question of taste, or of subjective experience, or even of palate ability/experience. But, I’m not sure I agree. Tasting very widely across many producers at huge events (UGC for Bordeaux, La Paulee for Burgundy), I see wide variation among producers. How does one measure this variation is is very hard question, but I’m not sure Burgundy is qualitatively on a different scale than Bordeaux. Perhaps I’d say that there is more variation among Burgundy producers, but not a huge amount more, with some variation in that difference depending on vintage. Repeating the exercise in multiple vintages, I have experienced dramatic vintage variation. Tasting large numbers of verticals reinforces the impact of vintage.
Another key factor is scale. Burgundies are (mostly, especially among the wines discussed here) made in small volume from small parcels. This tends to amplify the distinctiveness of each cuvée. Bordeaux wines are made from huge vineyards, with a lot of room/need for blending what would be considered totally different parcels or even different terroirs in Burgundy. This tends to smooth out some variation from vintage to vintage.
Still, a very interesting discussion. And I don’t think this changes one bit the core rule of wine appreciation: taste, taste widely, and form your own opinions. Except in my case, those opinions would be truth ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
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Hey buddy - I’m in San Clemente and have been on a similar wine journey. My first love is Napa cabs, but my palate has evolved to Bordeaux over the years. I find that while I still love Napa cabs and still make it to Napa about once or twice a year, I’m really digging Bordeaux these days. Not sure if you’ve been to Hi-Time in Costa Mesa, but they have an amazing Bordeaux selection and super helpful staff who can help steer you in the right direction, as they always do with me. I’ve also been getting into Super Tuscans and Brunellos, which are amazing and still have pretty good QPR. If you’re even in OC, give a shout and we can pop some bottles. I went to school in San Diego and lived in Del Mar/Solana Beach for about 4 years. Tough to beat.