1970 Château Lynch-Bages- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (10/26/2009)
tasted blind in the decanter. This wine was a tad muted on the nose with a touch of meat, shaving pencil and stewed red fruit. But the palate is far more forward than the nose. It tastes of a wine a decade younger (I had written 80’s Bord?). So smooth and clean with earth running underneath the flavors (ha what a pun)… sour cherry mixed with cedar accompanied by beautiful acidity and fine grained tannins on the long finish. The wine just lightly coats your palate for minutes. Certainly not the most complex wine, but the youth it has is certainly outstanding. (91 pts.)
My experiences with the '70 Lynch Bages pretty closely matches yours; certainly not the most complex aromatics, but makes up for it on the palate. I first had this wine about 12 years ago, and I would have never guessed that it would still be drinking so nicely today.
Must have been an excellent condition bottle, had this wine twice, and both times recall a pleasant enjoyable wine, but consistent with a late 60’s, early 70’s wine of this quality (earth, mineral, leather, but muted fruit and little acid/tannin remaining). Mine were fully mature, if not on the way past maturity, so nice to read a more positive recent example!