Saved this bottle for my 60th birthday - came to me originally via the clearance of Mary Quant’s wine cellar. The cork came out in one using prongs and despite the deterioration visible under the capsule was still in good condition after the first 10mm. The colour is garnet for sure but amazingly still vivid and bright. Clear rim as one might expect but very promising to the eye. The nose is tertiary - all cedar wood and mellow tobacco. Wonderful palate - savoury with a good salty saline zip. There is fruit - it’s stewed blackberry and apple - nice long finish. Truly an astonishing thing of beauty. A precious wine - it’s always a privilege to drink a wine of such age which retains a poise and elegance that literally takes your breath away.
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Why 62 is less than 61 (Wine Watch, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida): A chunky example of Lynch Bages with a lot of charcoal. Solid. Reasonable breadth of flavor and good tannins and acidity. Yet somehow it’s not totally clean even though you can drink it without gastric distress.
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Fine Wines SG - Grand Cru Discovery Pack (Delivered to Home): Medium garnet, and significant browning and fading at edges. Nose of cooked cranberry, caramel, dried flowers, and the soy sauce vinegary notes of an overoxidised wine. Similarly a rather sour cherried palate with herbal and coffee notes, and heightened alcohol burn, and a simplistic finish, pointing to overoxidation. Probably would have been much better if it were not that oxidised
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Perfect and classic claret! The level was upper mid-shoulder. Lots of leather and old woods in the nose. Perfect matured but had its peak 5-10y ago. But for a “off-vintage“ this old just so delicious and drinking with a massive flow! Elegant and fresh on the palette always forcing another sip. Well done old boy! This is what I love to drink
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Beautiful bottle (good cork, top shoulder) and beautiful contents. No doubt past its prime, but if you enjoy old claret this is a real treat - still so much Lynch Bages character. While there now is a lot of mahogany/treacle old-wine notes, the score is really derived from the truly exquisite cassis, mint, pencil, leather, chocolate notes that remain. It's completely polished in its old age; no seams. The palate has seen better days, but with these old clarets it's mainly about the nose anyway. I could certainly understand a lot of people not appreciating this, but I found so much to love. I imagine that the 85 will be a lot like this in 25 years or so. This, like the 66 Mouton, also underscores the point that some of these old wines really do need time to open out in the decanter; this required about 30 minutes to open fully and lasted beautifully for the hour and a half until we had finished the bottle. However if you have any, it is clearly time to drink them now.
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Cloudy pinkish color. Needs about an hour or two to open up, and when it does, it opens to soft fruit with pinkish hues and iron. Compact on the palate and doesn't really go long, but still enjoyable to drink. Ron's bottle, Acker auction at Marea.
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Bottle was properly stored from acquisition in 1971 until consumed. Beautiful, youthful bouquet and color, deep purple. Spectacular bouquet, lovely cassis, cherry and berries. Amazing 53 year old wine, what a treat to finally taste it.
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corked - too bad, as there was LOADS of fruit left, and otherwise it still had an intense nose and palate. Note to self - STOP buying old bottles like these - even from the best of commercial sellers, they almost always turn out to be no good...
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PERFUMED NOSE IMPROVED W/AIR. VERY LIGH BODY BUT TANNIN, FRUIT, ACID ALL IN BALANCE. OPENED IN 1 HR. LONG ELEGANT FINISH, SOF BUT PERSISTENT. DRINK NOW OR WAIT A LITTLE LONGER.
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Tobacco, gravel, forest floor, earth, leather, tar, soy and memories of cassis made up the text book, mature Bordeaux wine aromatics. A little gruff in texture, yet, still with the charm of aged Claret, this fully mature wine finished with spicy, earth and cassis flavors.
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Bought from auction. Cooked dinner around it. Opened and tasted at various times after that. Took a full 3-4 hours to develop but still held against time although tired. All enjoyed having some wine of this age and pedigree.
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An historic note (recorded here Aug 06) but still my greatest wine ever drunk. This was a Wine Society bottling from the UK and that is important to note as I have had the chateau bottled version of this since but only rated that around 88 - it was not nearly as good. The Wine Society used very dark green bottles at this time and I think that might have had something to do with how youthful and well preserved this wine was. This wine was just essence of cassis on the nose and in the flavour, with mulberries/elderberries for depth, and it had a finish that lasted for ages. My hand written notes from the time say that it lasted well in the decanter for 3 hours but that it was at its best at 2 hours after opening. I wondered then if this was really the 1961 but with the wrong label stuck on the bottle but I have since had a chateau bottling of the '61 Lynch and it was not a patch on it. I have tasted all the first growths from numerous vintages and all the `super seconds' from Bordeaux since but none of them has yet come close to this amazing wine. It had everything one could wish for in a claret.
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Summer 1988 with MPL at the office. Dark, brooding ruby color. Opaque with orange-ruby edge. The nose is a revelation. Sweet deep fruit with nice wood overtones and cocoa scents. Great bottle bouquet. In the mouth, stunning. Sweet, mouth-filling fruit. Big-bodied and concentrated, yet smooth and polished. Chocolatey. Mature, at-peak flavors. Perfectly balanced. Finish is long and good. 5-14-18-9: 96/100.
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tasting date is approximate. having trouble finding notes for this bottle. i imagine that we tasted the wine at its peak. can't recall the details. however, since i saved the bottle, i believe that we found many more charms than have been described by others. a recent note indicates that the wine is no longer drinkable, so this shall remain an un-reaffirmed memory.
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tasting date is approximate. no notes available for this bottle. this was probably one of our earliest acquisitions. believe we tasted alone since keith does not recall it. although i cannot offer a detailed tasting note, the bottle was kept for display, so the point score is offered in honor of a fond memory.
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keith shared notes from his cellar book. alltogether a better bottle. good fruity aroma, soft and full. more time to settle down after delivery this time? (this was a half bottle)
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keith shared notes from his cellar book. good red color, soft at the rim, fruity aroma. still considerable tannin- full fruity flavor. shades of beaujolais? a little short on breed but overall a good wine. (this was a half bottle)
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4/24/2022 - J'agnes Likes this wine: 94 Points
Saved this bottle for my 60th birthday - came to me originally via the clearance of Mary Quant’s wine cellar. The cork came out in one using prongs and despite the deterioration visible under the capsule was still in good condition after the first 10mm. The colour is garnet for sure but amazingly still vivid and bright. Clear rim as one might expect but very promising to the eye. The nose is tertiary - all cedar wood and mellow tobacco. Wonderful palate - savoury with a good salty saline zip. There is fruit - it’s stewed blackberry and apple - nice long finish. Truly an astonishing thing of beauty. A precious wine - it’s always a privilege to drink a wine of such age which retains a poise and elegance that literally takes your breath away.
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2/26/2022 - sdr wrote: 89 Points
Why 62 is less than 61 (Wine Watch, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida): A chunky example of Lynch Bages with a lot of charcoal. Solid. Reasonable breadth of flavor and good tannins and acidity. Yet somehow it’s not totally clean even though you can drink it without gastric distress.
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11/14/2020 - vinhonotte wrote: flawed
Fine Wines SG - Grand Cru Discovery Pack (Delivered to Home): Medium garnet, and significant browning and fading at edges. Nose of cooked cranberry, caramel, dried flowers, and the soy sauce vinegary notes of an overoxidised wine. Similarly a rather sour cherried palate with herbal and coffee notes, and heightened alcohol burn, and a simplistic finish, pointing to overoxidation. Probably would have been much better if it were not that oxidised
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1/3/2018 - Herr Big Ben Likes this wine: 95 Points
Perfect and classic claret!
The level was upper mid-shoulder.
Lots of leather and old woods in the nose. Perfect matured but had its peak 5-10y ago.
But for a “off-vintage“ this old just so delicious and drinking with a massive flow!
Elegant and fresh on the palette always forcing another sip.
Well done old boy!
This is what I love to drink
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7/1/2016 - englishman's claret wrote: 96 Points
Beautiful bottle (good cork, top shoulder) and beautiful contents. No doubt past its prime, but if you enjoy old claret this is a real treat - still so much Lynch Bages character. While there now is a lot of mahogany/treacle old-wine notes, the score is really derived from the truly exquisite cassis, mint, pencil, leather, chocolate notes that remain. It's completely polished in its old age; no seams. The palate has seen better days, but with these old clarets it's mainly about the nose anyway. I could certainly understand a lot of people not appreciating this, but I found so much to love. I imagine that the 85 will be a lot like this in 25 years or so. This, like the 66 Mouton, also underscores the point that some of these old wines really do need time to open out in the decanter; this required about 30 minutes to open fully and lasted beautifully for the hour and a half until we had finished the bottle. However if you have any, it is clearly time to drink them now.
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2/6/2016 - Pknut wrote:
Cloudy pinkish color. Needs about an hour or two to open up, and when it does, it opens to soft fruit with pinkish hues and iron. Compact on the palate and doesn't really go long, but still enjoyable to drink.
Ron's bottle, Acker auction at Marea.
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10/29/2015 - Wine_Bear Likes this wine: 95 Points
Bottle was properly stored from acquisition in 1971 until consumed. Beautiful, youthful bouquet and color, deep purple. Spectacular bouquet, lovely cassis, cherry and berries. Amazing 53 year old wine, what a treat to finally taste it.
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11/8/2012 - Wamrod wrote: flawed
corked - too bad, as there was LOADS of fruit left, and otherwise it still had an intense nose and palate. Note to self - STOP buying old bottles like these - even from the best of commercial sellers, they almost always turn out to be no good...
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10/20/2012 - Burgundy Al wrote: 78 Points
50th Birthday Celebration Dinner with Wine (Chez Schmidt - Chicago IL): Old and tired.
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6/19/2012 - STEVEN@WINECELLARCLUB.COM wrote: 94 Points
PERFUMED NOSE IMPROVED W/AIR.
VERY LIGH BODY BUT TANNIN, FRUIT, ACID ALL IN BALANCE. OPENED IN 1 HR.
LONG ELEGANT FINISH, SOF BUT PERSISTENT.
DRINK NOW OR WAIT A LITTLE LONGER.
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8/2/2011 - Jeff Leve wrote: 89 Points
Tobacco, gravel, forest floor, earth, leather, tar, soy and memories of cassis made up the text book, mature Bordeaux wine aromatics. A little gruff in texture, yet, still with the charm of aged Claret, this fully mature wine finished with spicy, earth and cassis flavors.
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7/9/2011 - rmgroves wrote: 88 Points
See notes from other bottle
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7/9/2011 - rmgroves wrote: 88 Points
Bought from auction. Cooked dinner around it. Opened and tasted at various times after that. Took a full 3-4 hours to develop but still held against time although tired. All enjoyed having some wine of this age and pedigree.
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3/1/1999 - sdr Does not like this wine: 82 Points
Very mature amber rim with trace of garnet. Chemical odor (? aldehyde). Too thin and drying out.
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3/1/1999 - sdr wrote:
Mostly brown. No fruit on the nose. Better on the palate though since there is a vestige of fruit. Still alive and better than the ‘66 today.
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4/30/1993 - kevin h wrote: 98 Points
An historic note (recorded here Aug 06) but still my greatest wine ever drunk. This was a Wine Society bottling from the UK and that is important to note as I have had the chateau bottled version of this since but only rated that around 88 - it was not nearly as good. The Wine Society used very dark green bottles at this time and I think that might have had something to do with how youthful and well preserved this wine was. This wine was just essence of cassis on the nose and in the flavour, with mulberries/elderberries for depth, and it had a finish that lasted for ages. My hand written notes from the time say that it lasted well in the decanter for 3 hours but that it was at its best at 2 hours after opening. I wondered then if this was really the 1961 but with the wrong label stuck on the bottle but I have since had a chateau bottling of the '61 Lynch and it was not a patch on it. I have tasted all the first growths from numerous vintages and all the `super seconds' from Bordeaux since but none of them has yet come close to this amazing wine. It had everything one could wish for in a claret.
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6/1/1988 - MicklethePickle Likes this wine: 96 Points
Summer 1988 with MPL at the office. Dark, brooding ruby color. Opaque with orange-ruby edge. The nose is a revelation. Sweet deep fruit with nice wood overtones and cocoa scents. Great bottle bouquet. In the mouth, stunning. Sweet, mouth-filling fruit. Big-bodied and concentrated, yet smooth and polished. Chocolatey. Mature, at-peak flavors. Perfectly balanced. Finish is long and good. 5-14-18-9: 96/100.
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1/1/1980 - bacchus wrote: 90 Points
tasting date is approximate. having trouble finding notes for this bottle. i imagine that we tasted the wine at its peak. can't recall the details. however, since i saved the bottle, i believe that we found many more charms than have been described by others. a recent note indicates that the wine is no longer drinkable, so this shall remain an un-reaffirmed memory.
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1/1/1978 - bacchus wrote: 90 Points
tasting date is approximate. no notes available for this bottle. this was probably one of our earliest acquisitions. believe we tasted alone since keith does not recall it. although i cannot offer a detailed tasting note, the bottle was kept for display, so the point score is offered in honor of a fond memory.
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2/8/1971 - bacchus wrote: 88 Points
keith shared notes from his cellar book. alltogether a better bottle. good fruity aroma, soft and full. more time to settle down after delivery this time? (this was a half bottle)
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1/23/1971 - bacchus wrote: 78 Points
keith shared notes from his cellar book. good red color, soft at the rim, fruity aroma. still considerable tannin- full fruity flavor. shades of beaujolais? a little short on breed but overall a good wine. (this was a half bottle)
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