Collector Wines

wines

This is a beautiful Giscours with tension and finesse. It’s full-bodied and shows plenty of berry and spice character, not to mention a long, silky-textured finish. It seduces you with each sip. Why wait?James Suckling | 95 JSThis chateau gets better and better. The wine has power, but it is harnessed by the intense fruits, the blackberry flavors, the density and the wood. With the power, though, comes elegance, resulting in a wine that is ready to develop over many years.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WEThis is a powerful wine with good ageing potential. The nose is ripe and creamy with plenty of dark fruit and spice complexity. The palate is rich, full and gourmand with Cabernet-cassis notes coming through. There’s a big tannic frame that shows the more masculine side of this Margaux. The finesse may be missing but there’s a lot of wine here. Drinking Window 2021 - 2040.Decanter | 94 DECThe 2005 Giscours captures all the natural radiance of the year in its stylish, racy personality. Sweet tannins wrap around a core of sweet red berry fruit, kirsch, rose petal, mint, spice and blood orange. Soft, curvy and sensual, Giscours is a winner in 2005. It doesn’t quite offer the grandeur of the very finest Left Bank 2005s, but it has plenty of that richness.Antonio Galloni | 93 AGDisplays blackberry, cherry and hints of sweet tobacco. Full-bodied, with soft, velvety tannins and a long, caressing finish. Very pretty and solid. This is structured and chewy. Needs time. Best after 2013. 20,830 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WSTasted at the Château Giscours vertical, the 2005 Château Giscours is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon and 38% Merlot picked between September 22 and October 6. Conspicuously deep in color, both the aromatics and palate replicate the strong performance from earlier this year. The bouquet offers very fine intensity with blackberry and cedar, here a tinge of cassis that becomes accentuated with time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, slightly grainy tannin. It is very well balanced and almost Saint Julien in style. It is clearly very focused with a sustained, mineral-rich finish that (as I said before) contains real energy. This is an excellent Giscours that will age nicely over the next 20-25 years. Tasted June 2015.Robert Parker Neal Martin | 92 RP-NM

This classic, powerful, firm Lynch Bages may be as concentrated (if not more so) than the 2005. It possesses a dense purple-tinged color, tell-tale cassis notes interwoven with hints of roast beef, savory herbs, spice box and subtle oak, good acidity and ripe tannin. The result is a full-bodied, fleshy Pauillac that will benefit from another 3-4 years of cellaring. It is capable of lasting 20-25 more years.Robert Parker | 94 RPYear after year, Lynch-Bages is able to produce sumptuous wines, typically rich, powerful and structured. This is solid, the blackberry ripe fruit enveloping this structure with a velvet sheen. This is developing into one of the successes of the vintage.Wine Enthusiast | 94 WESlowly and confidently inching towards its drinking window, but needs another three to five years before it gets there. Deep plush fruit with tight liquorice root and menthol edging against rich blackberry coulis. Beautiful subtle tension and complexity on display. Really a huge amount that uncurls slowly in the glass. Very seductive. Drinking Window 2018 - 2040Decanter | 94 DEC(Château Lynch Bages) The 2006 Lynch Bages was raised in eighty percent new oak, which intuitively would have seen a bit excessive in a vintage such as ’06, but the wine has worked out well and looks to be a fine example of the year. The nose is deep and lovely, as it offers up a complex mélange of cassis, black cherries, tobacco, herb tones, gravel, espresso and toasty new oak. On the palate the wine is medium-full, long and suave on the attack, with a fine core of fruit, plenty of ripe, well-integrated tannins and fine length and grip on the nascently complex finish. (Drink between 2019-2035)John Gilman | 92 JGVery focused and pretty now, with currants, minerals and hints of dried flowers. Full body with super-integrated tannins and a long, long finish. Beautiful. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 92 JSBlackberry, licorice and mint aromas lead to a full-bodied palate, with velvety tannins and lots of blackberry and mineral fruit character. Shows outstanding concentration and balance. Best after 2014.Wine Spectator | 92 WS(a blend of 79% cabernet sauvignon, 10% merlot, 10% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot; 3.54 pH; 6.03 g/l total acidity; 81 IPT; 13.2% alcohol): Fully saturated bright ruby. Currently in a slightly dumb phase and aromatically compressed on the nose, revealing cool blackberry and cassis aromas with extended aeration, complicated by notes of cola, flowers, red cherry and sweet spices. Then soft, round and ripe in the mouth, with persistent flavors of black cherry, cassis and cinnamon. A very serious wine offering impressive definition and very good balance, turning almost austere at the back, but with a pretty, pristine quality to its repeating floral and black fruit notes. Finishes with smooth, building tannins: don’t even think of opening this beauty for another eight to ten years. One of the best vintage for Lynch-Bages in recent memory.Vinous Media | 91+ VMWhile the cedary scent shows this wine’s potential complexity, the tannins bury it for now in extract. It’s as black as ATV tires ripping roots out of the earth as it lays tracks over dark, blueberry flavors. A tough vintage of Lynch-Bages, this needs time to develop past its initial reduction and allow the fruit to come up.Wine & Spirits | 90 W&S