Echo de Lynch Bages 2020

The 2020 Echo de Lynch-Bages has certainly tightened up since I tasted it from barrel, now more black fruit coming through, graphite and pressed flowers. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent tannins, slightly grainy in texture, quite saline towards the finish, sleek and poised. It will require just a couple of years in bottle.

Intense graphite and violet character with lead pencil. It’s full and firm with chewy and balanced tannins. Iodine coming through. So intense. Super second wine. Like the grand vin of Lynch from the 1980s. 60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% merlot.

The 2020 Echo de Lynch-Bages is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot, aging for around 12 months in one-year-old French oak barriques. It has an alcohol of 13.03%, a pH of 3.78 and an IPT (tannin index) of 80. Deep garnet-purple in color, it rolls out of the glass with expressive, upfront notes of baked black and red cherries, plum preserves and blackcurrant cordial, followed by hints of new leather, tobacco leaf and a medicinal waft. The medium-bodied palate is chock-full of savory flavors, with a chewy texture and just enough freshness, finishing a little rustic. Drink 2023-2033.

A serious Echo, one that has walls and depths to its tannins, and will take time to open up. Black pepper, cassis, cassis bud and liquorice, I would give this four or five years before opening. 3.8pH. Yields were down to around 22hl/ha. First harvest in the new gravity-fed cellars.Drinking Window 2025 - 2040