Early this month I attended one of my club's annual members's only tasting, which this year was a vertical of the iconic Mount Mary Vineyard's Quintet. It turned out to be a tasting worthy of the occasion, with a rare occurrence of no horrible cork failures and a remarkable high consistency of quality and style across the vintages. The following wines were decanted approximately three hours prior to the meeting:
FLIGHT 1:
2008 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12.8% alc (DIAM): Medium to almost dark red/purple. Quite toasty and earthy, currants and fruit pastilles, hints of tomato skin/sauce, a little EA and malty oak with air; a tart entry leads to a tarry, chalky palate with jubey fruit, tightly knit, medium-weight with excellent length. Lots of promise right from the very beginning.
2005 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 13% alc (DIAM): Medium to dark crimson/purple. Much sweeter than the 2008 vintage, minty with some cloves, cedar and nutmeg adding to a core of sweet currant fruit, some ozone & eucalyptus with breathing. A soft entry with touches of cocoa and sous bois is followed by jubes/jellies and mint, the tight, spicy palate fattening with breathing, the long finish dry, mineraly and peppery. Gorgeous now, but its best is at least a decade away.
2004 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 13% alc (DIAM): Medium to dark crimson/purple. Very similar to the 2005 vintage, a little tarry and more inky, but still minty with touches of cloves and cedar with deep, currant fruit. The palate's bright and tangy, slightly bigger than the 2005 and not quite as earthy, but the impressive chalky structure and peppery finish are near identical; likewise its best is yet to come.
2003 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 13% alc (cork): Medium to very dark crimson with a bare hint of purple. Darker and earthier than the 2004 & 2005 vintages, it seems to be riper with bigger, raspberry fruit up front, touches of scorched earth, cocoa/powdered chocolate, and a slightly leaner finish. It seems to be an earlier drinker than the other two, but is still very true to the house style.
FLIGHT 2:
2002 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12.5% alc (cork): Light to medium crimson. Toasty and fruity, a bit like a poptart, with cooler paprika, tomato, cedar and menthol characters, becoming beautifully perfumed like a tea rose with breathing; a soft, sweet berry entry leads to a light to medium weight, velvety palate with very grippy tannins on the finish. Some questioned if this it was a slightly forward bottle, but it was still very good to say the least.
2001 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12.5% alc (cork): Medium to dark crimson. Sweet cedar and cherries, some clove, mushroom and smoked deli meats with breathing; the palate's very earthy (eg. taste the dirt) with ripe, tangy fruit underneath, and a rather odd, tangy/metallic finish. It seems caught a little in between phases in such a strong line up.
2000 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12.2% alc (cork): Medium to almost dark crimson. From the first whiff and sip this was obviously a major step up in the vertical, beautiful and constantly changing with fresh coffee beans, sweet cherries and jubes, sous bois, sweet/smoked meats, river stones, musk, cedar and green tobacco. A soft entry is followed by a slow build up of tangy blackcurrants and earth, hints of pepper and beetroot, very soft and very long and velvety. A brilliant wine, but not even the second best vintage in the vertical tonight.
1999 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12.5% alc (cork): Light to medium garnet. Sweet leather and cedar, blackcurrants and smoked meats, some coffee & sous bois with breathing; the palate's slightly more advanced than the 2000, tangy and minty with a rather green but soft, grippy finish. Not quite in the same class, but a very good follow up all the same.
FLIGHT 3:
1998 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12.5% alc (cork): Light to medium garnet. Very close to the 2000 vintage, if anything it's a little less developed and has more potential; very complex and ever changing, blackcurrant, toast, coffee, sous bois, cedar, slightly vegetal characters, liquorice, pepper and parsley. The palate's tangy and sweet, smoky and chalky, with loads of grip and massive length, just a little bitter on the finish; needs at least another five years to show its best, possibly more.
1996 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12.5% alc (cork): Light to almost medium garnet with a brick rim. A little more oaky than the 1998 vintage, with sweet banana and toast on the nose, followed by black liquorice and earth, the blackcurrant fruit a little sweet and sour, more minty/chocolaty with breathing. A soft entry leads into a lovely, jubey mid-palate, with soft, chewy, Burgundy-like tannins on the long, sweet finish; not quite up there with the best in the vertical, but drinking beautifully all the same.
1994 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 13% alc (cork): Light to medium garnet with a brick rim. Radically different in style to the rest of the wines in the vertical, very oaky, sweet and sour, coffee, sous bois, barnyard and a sharp/bitey whiff of menthol; the palate's chewy, rather leafy/minty with obvious vanillin oak, and a tannic/chewy finish. A polarising wine that had its supporters, but seemed rather odd to others.
1993 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 13% alc (cork): Light to almost medium brick/garnet. Fully developed and spicy, with white pepper, espresso and smoked meats, ground paprika and nutmeg, soft red currant fruit; the palate's a little simple but has a lovely, silky structure and beautiful length. Despite being one of the lesser wines in the vertical, it's drinking beautifully right now.
FLIGHT 4:
1992 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12.5% alc (cork): Light to medium brick/red. The bouquet is a little past its best, slightly vinegary at first with sweet/nougat oak and gunpowder, then caramel and meaty/jus appear with breathing. There's still sweet/bright fruit and a citrus tang on the palate, which is lightweight with herbal/parsley characters, finishing long and grippy with some caramel on the end.
1991 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12% alc (cork): Medium to almost dark crimson. From the first whiff this announces itself as an absolute classic, still fresh with blackcurrant and tobacco, tar and smoked meats; the palate's just as fresh, bright and tangy, medium weight but full of blackcurrant, black jubes, spices and tobacco, culminating in a lovely long, fine but grippy finish.
1990 Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet, Yarra Valley 12.5% alc (cork): Medium to very dark crimson. Amazingly, even better again than the 1991 vintage, sweeter and chocolaty, fat and tarry with touches of cinnamon; the palate's jubey, blackcurrant fruit is almost drenched in sweet spices and tobacco, with a minty-mid-palate and masses of grip on the extremely long, chalky finish. An outstanding wine to finish a brilliant tasting, one that flirts with perfection.
Cheers
Ian
