2019 Echo de Lynch Bages: A supermarket wine.

[JimHow]

This is swill, folks. It is supermarket wine. It is as boring and watery as a 1984 Cos d’Estournel. The (legendarily boring) ‘93 Batailley is its daddy. Is this included as part of the “lux” brand espoused by the Cazes boy? Good grief. I’m just going to have to assume and pray that they aren’t trying to tout this as some sort of Carruades, that other Pauillac fraud. This is watery, thin. It’s a “good, solid” $18 supermarket effort. I think I paid like $34 for this, “on sale” <rolls eyes> in New Hampshire. I’m sorry, my friends. I really wanted to like this, like the outstanding 93-point Calon Segur second label. Or even the ‘16 GPL first label, which attained the greatness of its terroir, finally…. I would have loved to have sampled the ‘19 Lynch but this property is so slick-ly marketed there in their little Disneyland village on the plateau that it is like Tom Brady handing you a crypto “medallion” <rolls eyes> to get your hands on one as part of like being fan of the year or catching his 10,000th pass or some such thing. Where the heck are all the bottles of the 2019 Lynch Bages first label? There are like almost NONE in stock across the USA. Even New Hampshire, which gets all the cases of the Bordeaux first label “fifth growth” <rolls eyes> that we need year after year, has zero in stock, and was BARELY lucky to snag two whole cases of “Echo” <rolls eyes>, a case of each which was allocated between Portsmouth in the north and Nashua #50 in the south. I still say this is all very weird, obviously Gerry was fed misinformation, CV was wrong, his buddy did NOT have the chance to buy ‘19 Giscours, the 2019s were NOT distributed previously, those of us who have been watching daily saw that they came into stock a couple days ago. I STILL say there is something VERY weird going on with the 2019 Bordeaux supply chain coming into the United States, I’ve been monitoring this for over 25 years, I'm totally assuming of course that this is pandemic supply-chain related. Everything is upside down, like the real estate and labor markets, etc. Anyway… the 2019 Echo de Lynch Bages, or whatever it is called, is a joke. Chateau Lynch Bages, as i have been saying for many, many years now, is a myth. They produced about a half dozen compelling wines between 1978 and 1989, and have literally been riding on coattails ever since. This watery second label rates 80 points in my book, way below my scale of acceptability that begins in the 85-87 point range. I can’t give it an ignominious 79 points or below…. But it’s pretty bad. Rating: 80 points.

[Nicklasss]

Ouch! I guess the divorce is now officially official!

[JimHow]

This wine is swill, Nicola. If I want Gallo hearty burgundy I'll look for the jugs on the supermarket or Walmart shelves.
The biggest question, though, is: Where are the 25,000 gazillion cases of 2019 Lynch Bages that were produced?
They are being held back somewhere. Something very strange happened with the 2019 Bordeaux distribution. Okay, that's fine, strange things happened everywhere during and after the pandemic. We've seen it big time in the practice of law. But where did all these wines disappear to?

[Chateau Vin]

Hmmm.... Echo has always been a joke, even before it was rechristened from Averous(?) or whatever it was called before. I am surprised that you even bought it. Couple of times when I had it years before (I didn’t buy), I felt that there are so many Cru Bourgeois that are much better...

Right now, the best second wine IMO is that of Montrose. The rest are not worth IMO, but unfortunately La Dame is also climbing up in price...

As for 2019s go, it’s quite possible NH didn’t buy much of 2019 Bordeaux in the midst of the pandemic. Did you get a chance to ask them when you were there? I’ve got all my 2019s with the exception of 2 bottles of Clinet (and yes, I got couple of 2019 Lynch Bages too)

[Chateau Vin]

FWIW, the last Lynch I liked was 2009 vintage. The vintages followed since are a tad lower than 2009 for me (including 2010 and 2016). One caveat—I haven’t tasted 2019 though, and I hope to taste 2020 this coming Thursday...

[Claudius2]

Guys
Has anyone tried the 2019 estate wine (Ch Lynch Bages)?
One local importer is offering it to me t a fair price and I was actually considering biting.
After this note, I'm going to avoid it without more info.

I'm not saying that the Grand Vin is a disaster BUT if the second wine is poor, it doesn't give me any confidence.

cheers
Mark

[Chris75]

Guys
Has anyone tried the 2019 estate wine (Ch Lynch Bages)?
One local importer is offering it to me t a fair price and I was actually considering biting.
After this note, I'm going to avoid it without more info.

I'm not saying that the Grand Vin is a disaster BUT if the second wine is poor, it doesn't give me any confidence.

cheers
Mark

Yes, in 2022 at Prowein (Düsseldorf, Germany UGC 2019 in bottle). IMHO It was the most concentrated/massive wine of the left bank lineup, stylistically in-between the 2016 and 2018 (2016 with a little bit more heat/nutty on the finish). Since the 2010 (which I like very much), this style of winemaking is too much for me (16,18,19).
Cheers
Chris

[JimHow]

Yes CV it looks like they got a couple cases each of a few Bordeaux like Montrose, Giscours, Gloria, and a few others, and distributed between the Portsmouth and Nashua stores. This is a big, big change for NH. They got 12 bottles of Palmer and distributed 6 to each store.

Welcome to BWE Chris, thanks for your report on the 2019 Lynch. I was hoping to buy one to try in the name of science but they seem to be scarce. They were priced under $90 at Zachys early on during the futures campaign but now the prices have more than doubled in the few locations that have it. Where are the 35,000 cases!

[DavidG]

I haven't heard many complaints about 2019 availability other than here. I'm guessing CV is right about NH pulling back on how much they ordered due to COVID related concerns.

Never been a fan of second wines. It's the stuff that didn't make the cut for the grand vin. For most estates it hasn't been that good. And for those whose selections for the GV are so severe that even the second wine is high quality, the pricing doesn't make them that great a deal. But I can't rule out the psychological impact of knowing that I'm drinking "loser wine" LOL.

[StBlGT]

Good to know to avoid the Echo. I don't believe I have ever had that second wine.

However, I had some positive experiences recently with second wines over the past couple of years. I haven't had a bunch, but a handful...

La Dame (2015, 2016)
Les Tourelles (2019)
Le Marquis (2016, 2018)
La Croix (2018)
Reserve de la Comtesse (2018)

I've had the Clos du Marquis and Alter Ego, while being second labels, aren't too bad of a wine either. I do believe these two are priced in a category where the Grand Vin of other estates is a better buy. The others above are priced about right, with Montrose, Ducru, and Calon Segur's second wine punching way above its price point.

[Chris75]

Southwold tasting on 2019s, published last friday:
https://www.farrvintners.com/blog/post.php

Interestingly, last november I attended a Bdx2019 tasting (LeoB, Beychevelle, Issan...) and most wines were closing down within 2h after opening and some heat emerged, so i´m not in total agreement. My picks in the 50-60$ range would be Talbot and Branaire D.

[Chateau Vin]

I can’t believe BD is not inclined to try Gloria.... The estate is having a nice run for the past few years, and I implore to do so to see if it can vie for the BWE WOTY...

[JimHow]

Gloria to me is like the Jadot of Bordeaux. The 2002 Gloria that we snagged at the Great MacArthur’s 2002 Heist was great, though, best Gloria ever?