Every so often a vintage comes along that makes even the most seasoned critics sit up. Chateau Lynch Bages 2025 is one of those wines, and the reviews landing from the Bordeaux en primeur campaign are some of the strongest the estate has ever received.
About Chateau Lynch Bages, Pauillac
Chateau Lynch-Bages sits on the land known as "Batges" at the entrance to Pauillac, its 1855 Grand Cru Classé vineyard rolling across a gravelly hilltop with views over the Gironde estuary. Formerly owned by the illustrious Lynch family, of Irish descent, the estate passed to the Cazes family in 1939, and it was a run of exceptional vintages from 1945 onward that first established its reputation as a top producer. In the decades since, the wines have only gained in finesse and complexity, prized for a consistency that vintage after vintage adds real accuracy to the hedonism the estate is known for. Generous even in youth, Lynch Bages develops real structure, finesse and elegance as it matures, and it remains one of Pauillac's greatest names.
With a new winery that opened in 2020 now fully bedded in, the team have found their stride, and the 2025 vintage is where it really shows. The wines this year are powerful and concentrated, and the winemaking has been described as world class.
Chateau Lynch Bages 2025 Tasting Notes and Scores
Lynch-Bages 2025 is already being talked about as one of the standout wines of the entire en primeur campaign, and one of the highest rated Left Bank wines of the vintage. It combines the château's trademark power with more precision and freshness than many recent warm vintages have shown, prompting several leading critics to place it among the estate's greatest modern releases. The critical consensus has been remarkably strong across the board:
| Critic | Score |
|---|---|
| Jane Anson | 97/100 |
| James Suckling | 97–98 |
| Antonio Galloni (Vinous) | 95–97 |
| William Kelley (Wine Advocate) | 94–97 |
| Neal Martin (Vinous) | 95–97 |
| Falstaff (Peter Moser) | 97 |
Echo Lynch Bages 2025: The Second Wine
The grand vin was so strong this year that the second wine benefited too, with better parcels and grape selection available from fruit that didn't make the final blend. Jane Anson described it as one of the true sibling wines of the vintage, with a clearer link to the main estate than most second labels usually show, and scored it 94 points, unusually high for a second wine. Rather than the early drinking, fruit forward style you might expect, reviewers are treating this as a serious and ageworthy wine in its own right, with Antonio Galloni going so far as to say he cannot recall an Echo with this much power and structure.
| Critic | Score |
|---|---|
| Jane Anson | 94/100 |
| James Suckling | 93–94 |
| Antonio Galloni (Vinous) | 91–93 |
| Neal Martin (Vinous) | 89–91 |
| Decanter (Georgina Hindle) | 94 |
| Yohan Castaing (Wine Advocate) | 90–91 |
Why the Chateau Lynch Bages 2025 Vintage Matters
En primeur campaigns come around every year, but rarely with this level of agreement among critics. When names like Jane Anson, James Suckling and Antonio Galloni are converging on scores in the mid-to-high 90s for both the grand vin and the second wine, it tends to signal a vintage collectors will be talking about for a long time.
