1988 Château Lynch-Bages
Community Tasting Note
JamesTye wrote:
Sunday, April 29, 2012 - From 750ml. Bottle in pristine condition with level well into the neck and cork only soaked 2mm at most. Decanted 1 hour, drunk over 2 hours. Colour is solid brick red, bright with purplish hue in the centre of the glass. Looks relatively young for its age. On the nose this remained fairly closed, but plenty of cassis, some leather and a hint of earthiness. On the palate the wines comes to life. Elegant, balanced with very well integrated but noticeable tannins. Moderate amount of fruit are held together with a warm mid-palate and a long finish of nicely integrated tannins. Very fresh, in a Pauillac way, for a wine of this age. Earth, cedar, black fruits and a little bit of tar make up the palate. There is a touch of bitterness on the end which hints at an uncertain future. Will do better served with food, especially foods that will balance the tannins e.g red meat.
A lovely example of the 1988 vintage. More balanced than most but lacking the forward fruit to make it truly great. Certainly punching well above its 5th growth ranking but now that Lynch Bages is becoming highly fashionable and highly priced to boot, it might be easy to get carried away in scoring this wine. It pales into comparison to the Latour in the same vintage and I actually think the Leoville-Barton is better by a margin too. Very, very good wine from a vintage that I rate very highly, but it is not truly great and probably not worth the price the market would pay for it. This bottle was perfect drinking now and it will hold but I don't think it will improve further. Enjoy perfectly aged and classic Claret now if you are lucky enough to own a bottle or two.
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