Our love affair with Lynch-Bages stretches back a good many years, and, while we have frankly been disappointed with the property in more recent harvests, the 2008 is back in top form and offers up a stunning measure of deep, very confident and wonderfully extracted blackcurrant fruit. It is full and supple and fit with perfectly ripe tannins, and there is no question that it will age famously for years to come. It is, in our minds, one of the stars of the vintage.

More concentrated and tannic than many of the other Pauillacs in this vintage, with powerful cassis fruits, notes of liquorice and still-chewy tannins, with cigar box and menthol starting to tunnel though. It could do with another few years, and it's built to go the decades. Accomplished and enjoyable. Drinking window 2020 - 2035 (JA)

Lots of currant and lemon rind undertones. Full body, firm and silky tannins and a long and flavorful finish. Tight and linear but pretty and bright. Just opening now. Drink or hold.