The Grand Vin 2022 Château Lynch Bages checks in as 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. It actually reminds me slightly of the 2019, and while it's a classic Lynch Bages powerhouse, it has beautiful balance and purity. Cassis, graphite, lead pencil, and chalky minerality all define the aromatics, and it's full-bodied, with terrific tannins and a layered, incredibly impressive profile that continues to open and evolve with time in the glass. Tasted twice with consistent notes.

The 2022 Lynch-Bages shows all the classic Lynch layers, but dialed up to the maximum. Rich, deep and explosive, the 2022 packs tremendous punch. Sweet dark cherry, spice, leather, menthol, licorice, plum and mocha all open with time in the glass. The tannins are imposing, and yet there is more than enough fruit to balance things out, at least to some degree. I expect the 2022 will need a decade to shed some of its tannin, but it is formidable, even in the early going. Impressive. Tasted two times. "This is the third time in history we are above 14% in alcohol, the others were 2018 and 2019," Jean-Charles Cazes explained.

One of the vintage's most powerful, muscular wines is the 2022 Lynch-Bages, a full-bodied, broad-shouldered Pauillac that unfurls in the glass with aromas of cassis, cherries, mint, pencil shavings and petroleum jelly, framed by nicely integrated new oak. Liberally extracted, its deep core of fruit is underpinned by an imposing chassis of rich, powdery tannin and lively acids. Always rather forbidding from barrel, Lynch Bages always seems to come together in bottle, and the 2022 has the makings of another success for this address.