Echo de Lynch Bages, Pauillac 2018, Bordeaux, France

About Lynch Bages: About Chateau Lynch Bages: Thomas Lynch was a descendant of the Tribes of Galway. His father John emigrated in 1691 from Galway, Ireland to Bordeaux, inherited an estate in the village of Bages through his wife, Elizabeth, in 1749. This year represents the foundation of Château Lynch-Bages, which Thomas passed on to his son, Jean-Baptiste, upon his marriage in 1779. Jean-Baptiste soon handed over supervision to his brother Michel who maintained responsibility for the Bages estate until 1824, when the family sold it to a Swiss wine merchant, Sebastien Jurine, who had recently moved to Bordeaux.

Château Lynch-Bages remained in the hands of the Jurine family, followed by the Cayrou family, for over a hundred years. In 1934, Jean-Charles Cazes rented the property from its then owner, Felix de Vial, subsequently purchasing it in 1938. After Jean-Charles Cazes’ death, aged 95, in 1972, the estate has been largely managed by his grandson, Jean-Michel Cazes.[2]

In the late 1980s, the AXA Millésimes group began to develop a portfolio of wine property holdings, and approached Jean-Michel Cazes for help (Claude Bébéar, the AXA President, was a long-time Cazes family friend). They established Châteaux & Associés, which Cazes ran until he reached 65, and which by the end of the twentieth century owned many vineyards across Europe. Ownership of Château Lynch-Bages, however, remains with the Cazes family.

In 2017, the Cazes family has acquired Château Haut-Batailley, the 1855 Grand Cru Classé estate in Pauillac.

About Echo de Lynch Bages: Château Haut-Bages Averous is the name of a former Pauillac property, once purchased by André Cazes. This name has long designated the second wine of Château Lynch-Bages, the result of a determined selection for the first time during the harvest of 1976 and continued every year since then. Developed as an echo of the First Wine and enjoying the same attentive care from the vine to the storehouse, “Echo de Lynch-Bages” fits seamlessly in the line of its older brother: like him he has the flavour, aroma and finish characteristic of the wines of Pauillac. It is similarly marked by its roundness and suppleness, thus requiring less storage time in the bottle. Just like the nymph whose name he now bears, he never talks first but combines charm, elegance and seductive power.

Representing 25 to 40% of the harvest depending on the vintages, “Echo” is chiefly made from the property’s youngest vines. Its final blend often differs from that of Lynch-Bages by a slightly higher proportion of Merlot and Cabernet Franc. It is characterised by its soft tannins, a light and smooth oakiness, a silky texture in the mouth and a nice complexity.

Description: Composed of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc and without any new oak, the very deep purple-black colored 2018 Echo de Lynch Bages rolls seductively out of the glass with fragrant notes of candied violets, rose hip tea and fragrant soil over a core of crushed blackberries, warm blackcurrants and kirsch plus wafts of chocolate mint and crushed rocks. Full, rich, wonderfully concentrated and well structured, it has a solid backbone of firm, grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing long.