Lynch-Bages: a history
Jean-Michel Cazes is the owner of Château Lynch-Bages in Bordeaux.
This delightfully charming book maps out a history of his family’s involvement in Bordeaux and provides an interesting assessment of the regions up and downs over the last couple of centuries, but with a tight focus on the industry since Jean-Michel returned to the family business in 1973.
The history of his family’s presence in Bordeaux is neatly intertwined with the change is ownership of Lynch-Bages over the centuries until it is bought by his grandfather on the eve of the Second World War.
A personal story evolves with the young Jean-Michel living in the Médoc during the early 1940s, his education in Paris, that led to work in USA, back to Europe with the quickly expanding IBM, and then his return to Bordeaux in the early seventies.
The trials, tribulations, victories, and successes that surround his family, and the wine trade across the region, is artfully constructed. Jane Anson MW, who translated the book from French, has done a superb task in creating a narrative that is easy to read and absorb.
There are chapters on Robert Parker, how a relationship with Cathy Pacific opened doors to the Chinese market, why insurance companies have acquired properties in Bordeaux, the role of the consultant winemaker, acquiring domaines outside Bordeaux, etc., etc.
May I suggest this book not only for your own bookshelves, but as a present when you are going to stay with friends for the weekend who obviously prize this region given the volume of Claret in their cellars. Or even as a very generous gift on attending a lunch or dinner.
Published a couple of weeks ago, and there are numerous names and events within its pages that have prompted me to do more research to develop my own knowledge of the region. Having worked in Bordeaux, I thought I knew the patch fairly well, but perhaps not as well as I might have thought .....
Published by the Académie du Vin Library, it is available from their website, priced at £35.00.
One final point, it is definitely not a text book covering wine growing in this region. If you want a blow-by-blow account of the climate, soil, vintages, individual estates, and such, then Jane Anson’s ‘Bordeaux’, published by Berrys a couple of years ago, will hit that brief.
I hope you enjoy this book from Jean-Michel Cazes as much as I have done. As Jane Anson writes in her introduction, ‘We should all be grateful that Jean-Michel Cazes has shared with us these memories of a life well lived, alongside a family that is both rooted in Bordeaux and yet open and welcoming to the rest of the world. His recounting of his life is a rare treat, inviting us both into his world and into the rich tapestry of 20th-century wine history.’
