Jimi Hendrix Asked the Question. Lynch-Bages Has Just Answered It.

Jimi Hendrix asked the question. Lynch-Bages answered it.

Two vintages. Two sixes. Two of the finest wines this great Pauillac estate has ever produced — bundled together and named for the ear-melting song, because when the math is this electric, you play it loud.

The 2009 is Lynch-Bages at full throttle: Jane Anson's 98-point verdict called it a wine of "precise architecture" and "will power for decades" — cassis and blueberry driven deep into a muscular tannic frame, the kind of Pauillac that announces itself and refuses to leave the room. She went further still with the 2016 — 99 points — praising its "muscular but finely-tuned" character and a floral rose-stem lift that few Left Bank wines of any era can match. Given time, creamy black cherry and damson purée emerge, finessed by pencil lead and slate-strewn tannins building to a finish Anson declared "mouth-watering."

Not great wines for Lynch-Bages. Great wines, period.

'The Trilogy of 6' — 1996, 2006, 2016 — sweeps thirty years of the estate's modern era into a single extraordinary set.

The 1996 is at peak drinking right now: Decanter found it at 25 years old still "holding its Pauillac character perfectly," all quiet, magnificent composure. The 2016 anchors the pack — the vintage Anson placed above all others, a benchmark Left Bank expression that will define this century's first quarter.

But the surprise is the 2006. Not a wine that announces itself with swagger — but one Decanter described as "beautiful subtle tension and complexity… very seductive," quietly building toward a long and glorious middle age. It's the bottle you didn't expect. It's the one you'll talk about most.

Since 1518, Lynch-Bages has worked this patch of Pauillac with obsessive exactitude. Under Jean-Charles Cazes and winemaker Nicolas Labenne, it has become the Left Bank's most reliable over-performer — a "super second" in everything but the classification.

These packs are the proof. Taste it for yourself.