Château Lynch-Bages is a

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

in the

Pauillac Pauillac (; oc, Paulhac) is a municipality in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. The city is mid-way between Bordeaux and the Pointe de Grave, along the Gironde, the largest estuary in western Europe. Populati ...

appellation An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical boun ...

of the

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

region of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. Château Lynch-Bages is also the name of the red

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

produced by this property. The wine produced here was classified as one of eighteen ''Cinquièmes Crus'' (Fifth Growths) in the

Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 resulted from the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris, when Emperor Napoleon III requested a classification system for France's best Bordeaux wines that were to be on display for visitors from ...

History

Thomas Lynch was a descendant of the

Tribes of Galway The Tribes of Galway ( ga, Treibheanna na Gaillimhe) were 14 merchant families who dominated the political, commercial and social life of the city of Galway in western Ireland between the mid-13th and late 19th centuries. They were the families ...

. His father John emigrated in 1691 from

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city on ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

to Bordeaux, inherited an estate in the village of Bages through his wife, Elizabeth, in 1749. This year represents the foundation of Château Lynch-Bages, which Thomas passed on to his son, Jean-Baptiste, upon his marriage in 1779. Jean-Baptiste soon handed over supervision to his brother Michel who maintained responsibility for the Bages estate until 1824, when the family sold it to a Swiss wine merchant, Sebastien Jurine, who had recently moved to Bordeaux. Château Lynch-Bages remained in the hands of the Jurine family, followed by the Cayrou family, for over a hundred years. In 1934, Jean-Charles Cazes rented the property from its then owner, Felix de Vial, subsequently purchasing it in 1938. After Jean-Charles Cazes' death, aged 95, in 1972, the estate has been largely managed by his grandson,

Jean-Michel Cazes Jean-Michel Cazes (born 25 March 1935, in Bordeaux) is a French winemaker and insurance executive. He managed the wine holdings of AXA Millésimes until 2000, the family insurance agency, and the Cazes family estates until 2006. He is the son o ...

. In the late 1980s, the AXA Millésimes group began to develop a portfolio of wine property holdings, and approached Jean-Michel Cazes for help (Claude Bébéar, the AXA President, was a long-time Cazes family friend). They established Châteaux & Associés, which Cazes ran until he reached 65, and which by the end of the twentieth century owned many vineyards across Europe. Ownership of Château Lynch-Bages, however, remains with the Cazes family. In 2017, the Cazes family has acquired Château Haut-Batailley, the 1855 Grand Cru Classé estate in Pauillac.

Vineyard

The of Château Lynch-Bages are located just outside the town of

. The vineyard occupies a gravel ridge looking down over the Gironde estuary. The well-drained soil consists mainly of deep gravel beds over a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

sub-strata, and it is planted predominantly with red wine grape varieties (73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 2%

Petit Verdot Petit Verdot is a variety of red wine grape, principally used in classic Bordeaux blends. It ripens much later than the other varieties in Bordeaux, often too late, so it fell out of favour in its home region. When it does ripen it adds tannin, ...

). There is also a small (approximately ) plot planted with white varieties (40% Semillon, 40% Sauvignon blanc and 20%

Muscadelle Muscadelle is a white wine grape variety. It has a simple aroma of grape juice and raisins like grapes of the Muscat family of grapes, but it is unrelated. DNA analysis has indicated that Muscadelle is a cross between Gouais blanc and an unid ...

Wine

Château Lynch-Bages is primarily known for its eponymous red wine, of which approximately 25,000 cases are made in an average year. The

malolactic fermentation Malolactic conversion (also known as malolactic fermentation or MLF) is a process in winemaking in which tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in grape must, is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. Malolactic fermentation is most often ...

takes place mainly in large stainless steel tanks, and the wine then spends about 15 months in oak barrels (of which some 50-60% are new) before bottling. As of 2008, the second label of Lynch-Bages will be called, "Echo de Lynch-Bages". A third wine has now been added, called "Pauillac de Lynch-Bages".

References

External links

Château Lynch-Bages official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch-Bages, Chateau Bordeaux wine producers