92-94 Point Wines

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The 2008 Lynch Bages is brilliant stuff as well as a textbook Pauillac. Revealing a still youthful ruby/purple color as well as impressive notes of graphite, cedar pencil, cassis, tobacco, and obvious minerality, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, polished tannins, and a concentrated, layered texture. Jean-Charles Cazes described the vintage as late and great for Cabernet Sauvignon, and this beauty has classic Cabernet flair in spades. Powerful yet also fresh and elegant, it benefits from a decant and will continue drinking beautifully for another 20-30 years.Jeb Dunnuck | 94 JDIn the powerful style of Lynch-Bages, although perhaps less exuberant than usual. Instead the concentration comes from juicy fruit, which gives it the a softer quality. Even so, it still has solid tannins, dense texture and always the promise of good aging.Wine Enthusiast | 94 WEA sensational effort for the vintage, this textured, opulent, superb Lynch Bages is already strutting its stuff and should easily last for 20 years. Medium to full-bodied with an opaque dense purple color, notes of flowers and cassis, a layered texture that builds incrementally in the mouth and tremendous purity and depth, it can be drunk now or cellared for two decades or more. Bravo!Robert Parker | 93 RPMore concentrated and tannic than many of the other Pauillacs in this vintage, with powerful cassis fruits, notes of liquorice and still-chewy tannins, with cigar box and menthol starting to tunnel though. It could do with another few years, and it’s built to go the decades. Accomplished and enjoyable. Drinking Window 2020 - 2035Decanter | 93 DECLots of currant and lemon rind undertones. Full body, firm and silky tannins and a long and flavorful finish. Tight and linear but pretty and bright. Just opening now. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 93 JSThe 2008 Lynch Bages has a classic pencil lead and cedar scented bouquet with impressive delineation. It just takes a time to get going in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, classic in style with graphite-tinged black fruit. This is fresh and focused with impressive depth on the grippy finish. The Cazes family crafted a solid, what you might call dependable Lynch Bages that might eschew the glitz, but will cruise along nicely for a couple of decades. (Tasted at BI Wine & Spirit’s annual 10-Year On tasting).Vinous Media | 92 VMNo written review provided. | 92 W&SVery solid, with a super beam of dark currant, tobacco and iron pushed by charcoal, melted fig and cocoa notes. There’s a nicely rounded feel, but also plenty of grip in reserve. Best from 2013 through 2018. 30,500 cases made.Wine Spectator | 91 WS

(Château Cantemerle (Haut Médoc)) I continue to have a very strong preference for the 2008 vintage in Bordeaux over either of the following two years of 2009 and 2010, despite most commentators being swayed by the more obvious power and ripeness of the latter two vintages. This most recent bottle of the 2008 Cantemerle was excellent and beautifully classical in profile, offering up a still fairly youthful bouquet of cassis, black cherries, coffee bean, dark soil tones, cigar wrapper and a tasteful framing of new oak. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and impeccably balanced, with a fine core of fruit, ripe, well-measured tannins and impressive length and grip on the nascently complex finish. This is still quite youthful in its profile, but it is not particularly closed, and one can see all of its future detail quite clearly. It is a first class bottle in the making. (Drink between 2023-2060).John Gilman | 93 JGFruity, attractively balanced wine, the spice and caramel wood flavors fitting well into the sweet, berry fruits.Wine Enthusiast | 91 WE