2020 Echo de Lynch-Bages, Pauillac

Intense graphite and violet character with lead pencil. It’s full and firm with chewy and balanced tannins. Iodine coming through. So intense. Super second wine. Like the grand vin of Lynch from the 1980s. 60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% merlot.

A serious Echo, one that has walls and depths to its tannins, and will take time to open up. Black pepper, cassis, cassis bud and liquorice, I would give this four or five years before opening. 3.8pH. Yields were down to around 22hl/ha. First harvest in the new gravity-fed cellars.

The 2020 Echo de Lynch-Bages is gentle and harmonious on the nose, not powerful but quite seductive thanks to its pure red currant and wild strawberry fruit; boysenberry jam emerges with time (meaning a couple of hours). The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins, grippier than the nose suggests. An underlying saline element lends freshness on a firm finish that does not outstay its welcome, but encourages another sip. This is a fine Deuxième Vin.