The J-M Cazes wines can be considered the third label of Pauillac powerhouse Chteau Lynch-Bages, and a claret meant for drinking now while you squirrel the other wines away. The property can trace its history back to the 16th Century, though it was renovated and modernized by the Cazes family in the 1990s.

This highly affordable claret overdelivers for the price, with chiseled dark cherry, graphite, gravels and an undercurrent of brooding black plum and violet. Tannins are smoothed and the finish is snappy, primed for drinking now.