AJ | Saturated inky black-red: a very deeply coloured wine in this vintage. Warm, earthy and 'Pauillac-powerful' aromatics in a vintage when these can't have been easy to obtain. Beef, earth, pepper and sweet blackcurrant fruits, with just a little leafy freshness; significant harmony already. Impressive. Broad and sweeping on the palate, albeit with tyrannical acidity. You get a whole lotta wine but you'll need to match it with fatty, long-cooked pork and its crackling for that acidity to make sense, and of course the acidity has the effect of sharpening what are otherwise generous if fresh tannins. I love those tannins and they are a significant achievement this year ... but if only they were bonded to slightly richer and more glowing fruit! Impressive, for sure, but in this vintage I am looking for sweeter and softer wines to drink more swiftly (and there are plenty). A slightly shocking Lynch Bages for me. Perhaps time will improve its balance ... but somehow I doubt it. Drink Dates: 2028 - 2042. 88
SF | An imposing deep velvety colour; aromas of fig, plum and date; Black Forezt gateau and crushed pepper. Pleasingly complex. the palate is stretched by oak, with finely -grained tannins assertive in their youth but the inherent quality of fruit and tannin alike is such to underwrite quality and ensure longevity. An impressive LB in a tricky vintage. Drink Dates: 2027 - 2043. 92