Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

My best Lynch-Bages experiences were in the early 1990s when I used to go down to a local wine bar called the 'Wine Library' near the Tower of London where we could buy the 1985 for £25 a bottle. This was well before it became popular. Boy was it a racy, vibrant and stimulating wine out of the blocks. It was so delicious and precocious, but really grippy and tensile at the same tine. I drank it several times subsequently but never enjoyed it as much; it lost that nervosity. I still have one bottle left and am agonising on when to drink it. 

Then on a ski-ing holiday in Vail Colarado in 1995 we drank the 1989 in a restaurant called 'Sweet Basil.' It was absolutely stunning, even at that age. I guess that was before it closed down. The most recent bottle of 1989 I drank a year ago, which was matched against a Leoville Barton and Montrose 1989, and was the pick of the three, and was closest to that earlier experience. 

I never really had any really terrible experiences, more disappointments, of which there have been too many. I own very little now. Just that bottle of 1985 and a few 2000s.

Sweet Basil - very nice. Our favorite place there is the 'Swiss Chalet'.

I think the worst Lynch we've had must have been the 1964 which tasted like bleu cheese had been mixed into the wine.

But they've made a lot of good stuff.

Like Vail, Lynch Bages has been reclaiming the consumer surplus once enjoyed by its fans.

I had the 85 Lynch last Fall, I'd drink soon Comte.

About 80% of the time that I have drunk 89 Lynch, it has been near or at a 100 point wine.
And I've drunk over 100 bottles of the 89.
But there have certainly been disappointments.

Best: each time I had the 1989 with JimHow.

Worst: the 2007 at the chateau.

Nic

Best: lunch with the BWE gang and Jean Michel Cazes at Lynch Bages in 2005.
Worst: a corked magnum of the 1989.

97 LB was underwhelming

Only had two so not meaningful but 97 worst 2000 best could probably say that about a few wines though not the 97 Poujeuax.

Best, agree with David 2005 lunch with J-M Cases with multiple vintages brought up out of cellar at J-M request when group arrived and worst 2015 visit without J-M and or drinkable wine!

My second favorite Lynch is...

Drum roll...

Can you guess...

Every one I've had with BWE.
Especially in Dallas when David G tried to hoodwink us.
We called LB but missed by a year.

JimHow wrote:Can you guess...

1986?

1988?

Nic

1986 is my third favorite.
1988 is my second favorite.

I may have been with you when a 1988 was opened at the 2010 Chicago BWE convention. Am I remembering correctly? I also really liked the 1988. Classic to the very last bottle!

You are correct, Jon, we were at the same table with the Daytons.

The 88 is really good. Better than the 82 though? I've never tried the 82. The 83 ain't shabby either

The 82 is part of the old styled, pre-1983 Lynches.
Lynch Bages changed dramatically somewhere between after 1982 and before 1985, maybe as early as 1983.

Danny and I had the 85 and 88 LB at our offline in Denver, and I preferred the 88 quite a bit. The 85 was lovely aromatically, but the palate seemed excessively acidic.

1985 is of course the most overrated Lynch of all time, as it was the Jimmy Suckling era Wine Spectator Wine of the Year.

We've been hanging together too long Jim, I know you too well...

I can even tell what is your favorite vintage of Vieux Château Certan...

Nic

I love the '88 Lynch.
I had it next to the '88 Latour a couple of years ago, and on that occasion the Lynch clearly outshone the Latour.
Long (really long) ago, I was at a Lynch vertical. The '89 and '82 were spectacular - hardly a surprise.

I visited the estate in 1993. And our host volunteered the opinion that the 1988, 89 and 90 Lynches were great wines, but he preferred the 1988 because it was more classic.

Even back then the reputations of the 1989 and 1990 preceded them, and I was struck how regarded them as a triumvirate of great wines.

Getting back to the original topic, how could I forget! My best experience with Lynch-Bages was opening the 1961 with my brother on his 50th birthday in 2011. It was a fantastic bottle. I could imagine the 1989 tasting like that in 2039.

Lynch-Bages made one of the truly great 1983s. I opened a bottle when my then 21 year old daughter was having a special dinner for friends. She was across the room when I opened the wine and exclaimed, "That smells so good! Do we have to share this with my friends?"

Another fan of the '88 Lynch here. This wine is often overlooked, living in the shadow of the '89 and '90.