Pauillac · fifth growth (5e grand cru classé) in 1855
Château Lynch-Bages: available vintages, prices and pairings
The grand vin of Lynch-Bages, old vintages included, and Écho de Lynch-Bages, vintage by vintage, with the format, the indicative price and what to expect from it today: ready to drink, or to keep. Tick what interests you, and the quote goes out with your selection.
Vintages on the price list
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Two wines, one estate
Same estate, same team, two uses.
Château Lynch-Bages
The grand vin. Mostly cabernet sauvignon, merlot, a little cabernet franc and petit verdot. A fifth growth on paper, it sells at the price of a second. Ready at around ten years, it holds for thirty.
Écho de Lynch-Bages
The second wine, ready at around four years, at a fraction of the price: the Pauillac for a big table.
The name comes from the Lynch family, of Irish origin, who owned it in the 18th century, and from the hamlet of Bages. The Cazes family has held it since 1939; it restored the village of Bages and has also owned Haut-Batailley since 2017. The other châteaux of the appellation are on the page Pauillac wines.
The vineyard covers about a hundred hectares south and south-west of the town of Pauillac, on deep, free-draining Garonne gravels, lying in places on a clay base that sustains the vines in dry years. Since 2006, its 90 land-registry plots have been divided into 200 sub-plots. The château calls 1989 a magnificent vintage and had it illustrated by the painter Pierre Alechinsky. 2008: a cool, wet summer, saved by an anticyclone in September, harvested from 30 September to 19 October. 2011: a very dry, hot spring, harvest from 12 September, nearly two weeks earlier than 2010.
What to serve it with
- A vintage more than twenty years old: game (wine with game), a cut of beef in a wine sauce.
- A vintage ten to twenty years old: Pauillac lamb (wine with lamb), rib of beef (wine with beef).
- Écho de Lynch-Bages: grilled meat, duck magret (wine with duck), pressed cheeses (wine with cheese).
Which vintage for which occasion
The classified growth that pleases the most people: for a 50th birthday, the birth year, if the table has it (birth-year vintage). For client gifts, a well-known name in a wooden case (year-end client gifts). For a wedding, the Écho on the tables, the grand vin at the top table.
Is Château Lynch-Bages a classified growth?
Yes. It is a fifth growth in the 1855 classification, in the Pauillac appellation. Écho de Lynch-Bages, its second wine, is not classified.
Why does a fifth growth cost as much as a second?
The 1855 classification froze the châteaux' ranks according to their prices at the time. Lynch-Bages, like Pontet-Canet, has improved since, and the market now pays for it at second-growth level. The rank stays; the price follows demand.
When should you drink a Lynch-Bages?
Allow ten years before opening it and thirty years of good form, a little more in a great year, a little less in a weak year or in half-bottle; for the Écho, four to twelve years. The table applies this rule to each line; it is not a tasting note, and a badly stored bottle ages faster.
Are the prices shown the quote prices?
They are the indicative prices from the price list, incl. VAT, per bottle of the format, excluding delivery. The quote confirms the price, the availability of each vintage and the shipping; the delivery grid gives lead times. For a vintage not in the table, the quote request is still open.