I opened an 05 d’Issan along side an 03 Pontet Canet this past w/e. The d’Issan was the clear favorite (although both were great). It just showed more power and intensity of the fruit along with great grip, while the PC was more muted and round. Why do you think that was the case? Choose from below, or add your own thoughts:
The PC was closed, while the d’Issan hadn’t yet shut down.
05 is just THAT powerful and great of a vintage and as crazy as it sounds, it may be underrated!
The difference between a Margaux and a Pauillac. (Based on the ‘largeness’ of the wines, I would have picked them the other way around, so this is kind of backwards in my understanding of BDX.)
d’Issan is just THAT good (and underrated in 05 even with a RP95, if that is true)
So far, just about every single 05 has outperformed my expectations. (Perhaps the 05 Clos Fourtet I had a few weeks ago seemed too shut down to evaluate for the long term, but that’s no knock on it.)
Based on the '03 PC that we shared a few weeks back, I think it is shut down for a nice long sleep. Most of the '05s that I have had have shown well while young, although I haven’t had any d’Issan yet as all of the ones I picked up went to locals.
I was able to try the d’Issan at an in store tasting and it was one 05 that lived up to the billing(some other hyped wines that day didn’t). I liked the complexity even this young. You could do worse for $80.
Bill - you should have kept the d’Issan as it’s the real deal. I’m thinking about getting more since the price is pretty much unchanged and I’ll bet someone throws it on sale over the next few months.
I opened the PC to have a more focused time with it and it was basically the same as when we tasted together a few weeks ago. The d’Issan was a surprise. This is going to be fun to watch these wines mature … in another 10-20 years!
Cris - you can get the d’Issan for under $70 routinely these days. There are a few shops that have it in the low $60’s, but I’m not as familiar with those. Definitely worth it! I have a lot of it, but if I get a sub $60 offer, it will be excruciatingly hard to resist.
Thanks for the tip Chris. I was going from memory on WineX’s price at the tasting a couple months back. If I find it in the mid to low 60’s I will definitely buy a bottle or two.
Alas, no shipping to TX apparently. And, I typically order in case quantities (not a good habit!). Does your BIL have any inside scoop on where the next great deal on this wine might be coming from (that ships to TX, of course)…?