2022 Château Lynch-Bages, Pauillac

2022 Lynch-Bages is a another stellar wine from the Left Bank to be released today. Under Jean-Michel Cazes, the full potential of this property – located on a gravelly hilltop overlooking the Gironde estuary – has been unlocked. The 2022 is a wine of power and grace which, like 2022 Rauzan-Ségla, will take multiple decades to reach its apogee. One of the vintage's most powerful, muscular wines is the 2022 Lynch-Bages, a full-bodied, broad-shouldered Pauillac that unfurls in the glass with aromas of cassis, cherries, mint, pencil shavings and petroleum jelly, framed by nicely integrated new oak. Liberally extracted, its deep core of fruit is underpinned by an imposing chassis of rich, powdery tannin and lively acids. Always rather forbidding from barrel, Lynch Bages always seems to come together in bottle, and the 2022 has the makings of another success for this address. William Kelley (93-96)