Among a certain generation Chateau Lynch-Bages used to be known affectionately as `lunch bags` on the grounds that it was cheap enough to go in one`s lunch bag. Sadly, it is no longer that cheap. (Your lunch bag may vary). But this Fifth Growth is a member of the elite club of Super Seconds, those chateaux that capture how out-of-date some aspects of the 1855 classification has become. It is also quintessential Pauillac, with a high proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon and all the gravel, smoke, cedar and cassis one expects in an absolutely classic left-bank Claret. It enjoys top gravelly terroir from the dizzy, 35-metre heights of the Bages plateau almost all the way down to the banks of Gironde.

So if the origin of the name is not actually in our lunch bag, where does it come from? What is now Bages was once Batges, and in the 18th century a canny Irishman by the name of Thomas Lynch married the Batges heiress. Fast forward, the Cazes family began renting the estate in 1930, and bought it outright in 1939. Jean-Charles Cazes took the helm in 2006. One of his first projects was leading an extremely detailed soil study. That in turn enabled much more detailed plot-by-plot work in the vineyard. And in 2020 they unveiled a vast new cellar. With many more vats in smaller sizes, the plot work in the vineyard now carries over into the cellar. It is this kind of hard work and passionate dedication across such good terroir that guarantees Lynch-Bages its Super Second status. (NT 08/08/25)