TNs: 1990 Mount Mary Quintet + 1990 Yalumba The Reserve

[Baby Chickpea]

<b>1990 Mount Mary Yarra Valley Quintets</b>
Mid red with slight brown tinges. Nose is spicy, cedary, cigar ash, subtle sweet violets, plums and dark berries. Very nice. The palate is full-bodied but elegant. Good concentration. However, it is unbalanced as the very grainy and coarse tannins overpower the residual fruit. Tannins are not dusty and fine. Fruit is somewhat hidden still and after 4 hours in a decanter the fruit retracted further. Day 2 – tannins were softer and more integrated. Better balance. A difficult and rather intellectual wine to assess – appears to need more time. Try again in 1-2 years my notes read as it is clearly youthful. There is a slight mid-palate hole and is a little short on the palate. At this moment, not living up to its reputation. Reminds me of a Jean-Luc Godard film – it has a beginning, middle and end but not in that order and a bit all over the place. And like Godard, slightly over-rated. An atypical Quintet from a great vintage that is brutishly big and tannic. Will it ever calm down? <b>Very Good 17.0 / 20</b>

<b>1990 Yalumba The Reserve Cabernet Shiraz</b>
A combination of Barossa and Coonawarra fruit. Deep almost impenetrable red. Bouquet is sweet berry fruit initially, very rich, with obvious spicy oak treatment and slightly alcoholic finish. Palate has very viscose tears on sides of the glass. Hints of fruit sweetness again. First impressions are medium-bodied, with fruit, oak and tannin surging in that order. Excellent length but finishes very, very dry with dusty and chalky tannins. This balances the big oak and intense fruit of blackberries. Lovely harmony after two hours in the decanter and the oak has been subsumed amid the intense fruit spectrum. A potentially beautiful wine with many years ahead of it, as there is little secondary complexity. A superior wine in every respect to the Quintet, but like it, nowhere near its peak. <b>Excellent 18.0 / 20</b>

[simm]

Great notes Danny, Like the Goddard business

Talk about long life wines considering you don't think they've hit their prime!

cheers,

[Mike Hawkins]

Danny,

I had a bottle of the Yalumba a couple of days ago and was a little disappointed given its pedigree. Agree with the chalky, dusty tannins, but didn't get the fruit sweetness you alluded to.

I'll take your advice and save the other bottles for later.