WEINWISSER: "Mittleres Purpur, dunkel in der Mitte. Kompaktes, intensives und sehr tiefgründiges Bouquet, Pflaumentöne, dunkle Edelhölzer, noch sehr verschlossen wirkend, mit einem riesigen Nasenpotenzial. Reifer, pflaumiger Gaumen, tolle Aromatik, Zedernholz, Kandis und eine gewaltige Süsse im leicht rauchigen Finale, viel Druck."
WINESPECTATOR: "Delivers so much blackberry, leather and dried fruits on the nose. Full-bodied, with ultrapolished tannins and a silky mouthfeel. The palate turns to leaves, cedar and dried berries on the finish, which goes on and on. This is still reserved for the vintage, suggesting a long life ahead. Just coming around now, but will improve many years ahead. I have always loved this Lynch.--'89/'99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Drink now. 35,000 cases made."
JANCIS ROBINSON: "A really lovely Lynch this. As it has been for some time. Dark ruby. Very rich and sweet. Just very slightly rusty on the end. Lovely and vital on the mid palate and just slightly falls off at the end. But it sure delivers both peasure and richness so that initially I wondered whether it wasn't right bank. Voluptuous."
ANTONIO GALLONI: "(4.7 g/l total acidity- 13.4% alcohol): Deep ruby-red. Still youthfully closed but highly complex nose hints at cassis, minerals, gunflint and Oriental spices. Quite clean and juicy, boasting lovely precision and size to its flavors of small dark berries, smoky plum, coffee and minerals. This pure, long wine finishes with enticingly soft flavors of red cherry and marzipan. Though rich and opulent, this graceful, seamless wine can still age effortlessly. Maybe the best Lynch-Bages of the last 30 years."
THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "The first thing you notice is the unmistakable aroma of an unsmoked Cuban cigar, with its hint of bitter chocolate, coupled with cedar, smoke, tobacco, mint, spice, herbs and roasted blackberries. Full-bodied, concentrated, intense and firm, there is a sweetness to the fruit, a hint of green pepper and a gorgeous display of blackberries and cassis in the long finish. This is not about finesse. Instead, it is all about the fabulous, big juicy gulp of mouth-filling cassis that really hits the spot! The wine is showing great today. If you have a bottle, do not hesitate to check it out."
THE WINEADVOCATE: "I have tasted the Château Lynch Bages 1989 several times since my last penned note in 2010. It is such a consistent wine, a Pauillac that never lets you down. Here it continues to sport a relatively backward blackberry and cedar scented nose, the graphite (pencil box) element a little more accentuated. The aromatic purr like a Bentley, unraveling with each swirl of the glass. The palate is very well defined with a rigid structure, well-judged acidity and hints of chestnut and cooked meat offering secondary notes on the dense finish that suggest a long drinking plateau. What a stupendous wine from Jean-Michel Cazes!"
