HKWS Mt Mary Quintet 1990- 2006

[dave vino]

Actually I was referring to his heavily into Bdx drinking mates at the tasting plotting revenge not Palmer themselves. To get back at Jamie for slipping in a wine, in hindsight, they should have liked.

[camw]

This thread is just the best, congrats to all involved.

[phillisc]

Cam, agreed, but could be time for a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down
Cheers
Craig

[Mahmoud Ali]

Actually I was referring to his heavily into Bdx drinking mates at the tasting plotting revenge not Palmer themselves. To get back at Jamie for slipping in a wine, in hindsight, they should have liked.

Ah, I see. Shows how easily one can get hold of the wrong end of the stick. Had I known that is what you meant my response would have been different. Not sure what it might have been but more along the lines of encouraging it. It's always fun to disabuse people of preconceived notions. I still recall the reaction to serving blind a nearly 25 year-old '81 Taltarni Cabernet at a dinner where people were completely absorbed by its Bordeaux-like nose. They were shocked but my purpose of showing that Aussie wines can age gracefully was successful.

Cheers.................Mahmoud.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Cam, agreed, but could be time for a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down.

I had to ask my Antediluvian partner about "Bex". She said "that's old", that it was a headache powder but she hasn't seen it since she was a kid. I learn something new every day.

Mahmoud.

[JamieBahrain]

Well I'm glad some folks enjoying the thread as I was going to delete it as I have NFI what's going on.

Anyways, just to rehash, in the 35 years of the HKWS there has never been a more convincing "last" of a bottle of wine that wasn't thought to be faulty.

[Mahmoud Ali]

I don't think there was any debate about the Palmer finishing last in your tasting. And if you think that I, or anyone else on this thread disputed it, then I quite understand why you have "NFI" as you put it.

Cheers..................Mahmoud.

PS: I see that you're still having trouble moving on.

[Matt@5453]

I don't think there was any debate about the Palmer finishing last in your tasting. And if you think that I, or anyone else on this thread disputed it, then I quite understand why you have "NFI" as you put it.

Cheers..................Mahmoud.

PS: I see that you're still having trouble moving on.

Time to move on mate (seriously)

[Mahmoud Ali]

Agreed - also seriously!

[Ian S]

It's always fun to disabuse people of preconceived notions. I still recall the reaction to serving blind a nearly 25 year-old '81 Taltarni Cabernet at a dinner where people were completely absorbed by its Bordeaux-like nose. They were shocked but my purpose of showing that Aussie wines can age gracefully was successful.

Cheers.................Mahmoud.

I'm a huge fan of the rugged style of those old Taltarni wines. I was lucky to pick up some mature 1980s wines and they'd not just aged but genuinely finished with complexity and balance, despite retaining a degree of structure that might have allowed them to go another decade or two.

What's the view on the recent wines?

[Mahmoud Ali]

Ian,

From the beginning of my wine collecting odyssey I had no compunction about cellaring Australian wines. My first early purchases of Australian wines were the Chateau Taltarni and Tahbilk Cabernets (back when they had Chateau in their names). The Shiraz craze had yet to come. I still have a bottle of the '82 Taltarni and Tahbilk Cabernets. Somewhere at home I still have an old tabloid copy of the Wine Spectator which featured a story on Dominique Portet and Chateau Taltarni. There is a black and white picture of Dominique in his vineyard holding a dead snake on the end of a stick. Since then I have not seen a Taltarni Cabernet here in Edmonton (Canada) but once did come across the '98 Taltarni Shiraz and on impulse and reputation, not tasting, bought a few bottles to cellar. In Sydney I do recall tasting a few Taltani wines from the early part of the '00s in a bottle shop and do recall liking them, but wasn't too keen on their entry level Three Monks wine.

Someone else will have to chime in on the recent Taltarni wines.

Cheers.................Mahmoud.

[WAwineguy]

Just read this thread.

My comment is:

[Raymo]

Cam, agreed, but could be time for a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down.

I had to ask my Antediluvian partner about "Bex". She said "that's old", that it was a headache powder but she hasn't seen it since she was a kid. I learn something new every day.

Mahmoud.

I think you mean 'Antipodean', not Antediluvian – assuming your friend is from Australia or NZ, and not 'ancient'.

[Mahmoud Ali]

I think you mean 'Antipodean', not Antediluvian – assuming your friend is from Australia or NZ, and not 'ancient'.

Oh my goodness, yes. Well spotted. But please don't tell her that I referred to her as an Antediluvian. In my defense, if there is one, earlier in the evening I had been playing touch rugby with my old boys club, the Antediluvians.

Cheers...............Mahmoud.

[Gary W]

I had the 1995 Palmer late last year (95 points) and it's a good wine for me (this bottle ex-chateau cellars). As for needing more time excuse, all I can say is that wine is drinking beautifully at present and will go on for longer. It's certainly ready to drink. If the Mount Mary wines were rated higher, well that's a fair cop in my opinion!

[JamieBahrain]

Indeed.

I knew exactly where the wine was in the line-up and my note is on the mark from a perfectly cellared and transported bottle . The sommelier had prepared the wine ( 95 Palmer ) half a dozen times and opted for an interesting and restrained aeration technique. It was an excellent wine that I agree is ready now and will drift the way of high quality Bordeaux over many years supported by an excellent structure- which though more powerful than the Mt Mary's was by no means leviathan to Old World drinkers, though perhaps 4 vintages of preceding MM calibrated palates and tastes.

Palmer is a massive contrast to Mt Mary and I thought it would blow the Mt Mary out of the water considering the Old World bias and expertise at the dinner.

For the forum, I'd suggest you squirrel away a few bottles of MM for the cellar. World class wine.



Chateau Palmer 1995- Rich and ripe berry dominated nose, there's some complexity in a mulch/tobacco and spice shade. Voluminous in comparison to Mt Mary with far more weight and concentration of flavor- far more powerful tannin profile, ripe and firm.

I enjoyed the wine but unlike the tasters I knew it to be Palmer ! Corrected a short pour which is typical of HKG and it's Bordeaux obsession !

94pts

0 Firsts 1 Second 8 Lasts ( Holly F@#$ )

3rd for Me and 12th for the Group. Yep, that's right, the last wine of the night!

[Gary W]

In some ways the Palmer is more new world than the Mount Mary - in terms of flesh and oak - whereas the MM might be seen as typical Old Skool Claret, like the good old days. Just a thought!

[phillisc]

Gary, not ever having had anything as flash as the Palmer, I can not comment.
However, MM from 1990 and 94-04 in the cellar, I might be able to comment that they are absolutely cracking wines for me at least.

Masked bottles always always do the strangest things to the most seasoned and respected palates.
What is weird about this tasting is that the ring in was not picked...picked to be any good that is.
Perhaps there needed to be a book end ( 2 non MM wines) so that there might be a chance of a point of reference...but then there might have been a number of MMs biting the dust...who knows.

Cheers
Craig

[Mahmoud Ali]

I think quite too much is being made of the Palmer coming in last, and does it really matter? Both Gary and Jamie think it is a good wine and have rated it highly. However I think Gary has the right idea, that the Palmer will go on longer, that the Mount Marys may be more old school claret in style, and that the Palmer may indeed be more new world in style. In fact the Palmer website describes the '95 as a modern wine. If indeed the MMs are old school wines (and please note that I have never had a MM) and were à point, then surely many who like mature old world wines would prefer them. I know that I would. As I said in an earlier post, in a face off between a St-Emilion Grand Cru (Pavie Maquin) and an Australian Grenache (d'Arenberg) I much preferred the perfectly mature Australian wine to the St-Emilion which was likely in a dumb phase. At a future date the St-Emilion may well be better than the d'Arenberg but only time will tell.

Cheers.....................Mahmoud.

[JamieBahrain]

Masked bottles always always do the strangest things to the most seasoned and respected palates.
What is weird about this tasting is that the ring in was not picked...picked to be any good that is.
Perhaps there needed to be a book end ( 2 non MM wines) so that there might be a chance of a point of reference...but then there might have been a number of MMs biting the dust...who knows.

G'day Craig

There were two non-Mt Mary's in the line up. The Palmer 95 and Yeringberg Reserve 99. Both came last and second on last which makes it even more interesting suggesting a palate calibration and expectation bias at play.

Some of the participants were the high end Bordeaux commentators and doing two or three of these dinners a month I'm not a fan of blind tastings.Though I do love taking home near full bottles of little-loved wines from tastings and oh my, what a treat.