In my previous post I mentioned that we've started getting some of our wine from the WSJ Wine Club which, so far, has turned out to be a pretty good deal. The average quality of our wine has gone up without spending a tremendous amount more. I, in particular, have been quite happy with the whites that we've receive so far; they've generally been much better than what I typically drink. Anyhow, a little while ago they were offering a special1 on 2005 Château de Lyde, so the wife and I picked up a case mostly on account of having heard that 2005 was a good year for Bordeaux. Unfortunately it remains to be seen whether 2005 will be a good year for Château de Lyde.
Our first sign that Château de Lyde might not be the greatest Bordeux, had we chosen to research rather than just throw caution to the winds, was that neither it nor it's parent company (Château de Marsan) appear on neither the 1855 Bordeaux Classification nor Lichne's expanded list. So we're not dealing with one of the recognized crus, but at $190 a case that can certainly be overlooked. The wine itself, however, isn't remarkable; my wife and I agreed that we wouldn't have picked it out as anything special in a blind tasting. It doesn't compare favorably to the 2008 Casa del Rio Verde Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva that I'm drinking right now, a random bottle that we got from the WSJ in a case of mixed reds.
One of my primary objections is that its overwhelmingly tannic, and I'm generally a partisan of robust wines. The nice thing about tannins, however, is that mellow with age, so there may be hope for the vintage yet. We're going to put the rest of the bottles up and see if they've improved in a year. Stay tuned.
1 Which, to their credit, genuinely appears to have been a special; I tried to find Chateu De Lyde on their site tonight and it appears that they're all out.
