Château Lynch-Bages | 5ème Grand Cru Classé Pauillac

History

The first mention of the hamlet of "Batges" dates back to the 16th century. In the 17th century, the Déjean brothers gathered the lands that would form the Domaine de Bages, sold in 1728. In 1750, Thomas Lynch, son of an Irish merchant who had taken refuge in Bordeaux, acquired the property by marriage; his son Michel Lynch systematically drains the soil and gives his name to the "Cru de Lynch". In 1866, the new owner built, on the advice of Pierre Skawinski, an innovative gravity tank, used until 1976 and now preserved. The Cazes family, originally from Ariège, took root in Pauillac in 1875; Jean-Charles Cazes took over the estate as a tenant in the 1930s, then his son André regenerated it and made it shine internationally. Jean-Michel Cazes modernized the facilities from 1973 — half a bottle of Lynch-Bages even traveled aboard the Discovery shuttle in 1985. Since 2007, Jean-Charles Cazes (son) has been running the estate and leading its transition to precision viticulture.

Château Lynch-Bages, Grand Cru Classé de Pauillac, has belonged to the Cazes family for four generations. Under the direction of Jean-Charles Cazes since 2007, the estate has led an ambitious precision viticulture project and renovation of its cellars, completed in 2020 in collaboration with the architect Chien Chung (Didi) Pei, opening a new chapter after four centuries of history.

The Vineyard

The vineyard of a hundred hectares extends to the south and southwest of Pauillac, on homogeneous soils of deep Garonne gravel resulting from the erosion of the Pyrenees by the Garonne. These hyper-draining, poor and stony soils accumulate daytime heat to restore it at night and promote a deep rooting of the vine. Since 2006, a fine satellite mapping has made it possible to break down the 90 original cadastral plots into 200 subplots, to precisely adapt the grape variety (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot) to each terroir.