Echo de Lynch Bages 2022

Dark currants with blackberries and a touch of pencil shavings. Good perception of freshness despite the ripe black fruit. Tight, full-bodied and fine-grained on the palate. Long, structured and juicy. 64% cabernet sauvignon, 31% merlot and 5% cabernet franc. Give it two or three more years.

Revealing aromas of cassis, licorice, pipe tobacco and loamy soil, the 2022 Echo de Lynch-Bages is medium to full-bodied, rich and fleshy, with a deep core of fruit and plenty of chewy tannin. It shares much of the style of the grand vin this year, and it's one second wine that will reward a bit of patience.

The 2022 Echo de Lynch Bages, aged for 14 months in one-year-old oak, has a slightly timid nose at first. Very pure blueberry and cassis fruit emerge with time in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, fine acidity, quite compact on the mid-palate with a touch of pencil lead toward the finish. This is a fine, quite sturdy Deuxieme Vin that will need 4-5 years.

A serious Echo that gives a good entry into the main wine. There are a ton of tannins here, and it has the inky, slate, crushed rock character of Pauillac. Carefully-extracted cassis and bilberry fruit, this is measured, one to look out for, needs a few years to relax. 3.69ph, 10% new oak.