Pauillac de Lynch Bages, 2017

This is one of the most recent wines to come from arguably the most popular Bordeaux in the country.

Popular Lynch Bages may be, but it is also alarmingly expensive and price changes are going one way.

Their second wine, Echo de Lynch Bages, now trades at a similar price to other Grand Cru Classé wines, meaning up to and over the €100 mark.

So, a third wine makes a lot of sense, especially where the demand is for drinking rather than just for collecting. That is what makes this wine so appealing! Fruit-forward and supple with enough Pauillac quality, it is superb for 'early drinking'.

It is a wine that was first made in the phenomenal 2009 vintage and is made solely from the fruit grown in the Chateau's vineyards. Made mostly from the younger vines, it is a blend of 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc. It is a wonderful introduction to the property and to the appellation.

Sure, you can get less-expensive wines from Pauillac, but this one is made by Lynch Bages...

Chateau Lynch Bages nearly sells itself. Seriously good and immensely long-living, this is one of the finest red Bordeaux properties of the last four decades and with only one or two vintages that could ever be considered to be anything other than excellent, they have a serious pedigree to back up their reputation.

Classified by the awful hand of fate as only a fifth growth in the 1855 classification, they have consistently proven their worth to be of much higher worth and it is widely agreed that if any reclassification were ever to be done again (it won't), Lynch Bages would be very much the beneficiary of it.

This wine is almost proof of their class - so much quality that they had to make another wine to satisfy consumer demand. But more than just satisfying demand, this wine hooks you in and makes a wider customer base able to say "oh yeah, I know Lynch Bages" and it then (the Cazes family hope) has mini-ambassadors for the Chateau into the future. Start small, end big. And in fairness, this is a pretty beautiful way to start small!