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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 94.7 pts. and median of 95 pts. in 3 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Dwongl on 1/27/2023 & rated 95 points: Fresh ruby red. Roses and raspberries on the nose with a little dried flowers. On the palate - big burst of sweet cherries with some pomegranate acidity. Very fine tannins and great balance. Lovely finish. (2854 views) | | | Tasted by Sean Tay on 3/8/2022 & rated 93 points: Pronounced nose intensity with notes of both red and black fruits. Smoke, toast and spices notes. Medium+ acidity and medium+ tannin. Long finish. (3963 views) | | | Tasted by Screwcaps on 6/30/2021 & rated 96 points: 18 Quintet
Was decanted a day ahead. This note a day after on reflection.
A quiet and elegant wine, jubey and pure, with masses of complexity and almost unbelievably long finish in its lithe and light to medium frame. Oak is not a feature.
Finest of tannin, energetic acidity, and body all in perfect harmony.
This needs a quiet room, the closer and more time you can spend with this wine the higher the score goes up. Exceptional. Thank you duck.
Drink now to 15 years, it will cellar but it’s so good now you’d hate to miss it peak. Only down side is that this is under cork. The only thing holding it back from a higher score is intensity and body which should come with age.
In Australia there are not rules about what gets planted where. This is a fantastic example of Cabernets made by a Pinot producer- you can see the lightness of touch. (5172 views) |
| By Angus Hughson
Vinous, Victoria: Cutting Edge Meets Classic (Mar 2024) (3/1/2024)
(Mount Mary Quintet Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com (10/11/2020)
(Mount Mary Yarra Valley Quintet, Red, Australia) Subscribe to see review text. | By Gary Walsh
The WINEFRONT (9/7/2020)
(Mount Mary Quintet) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Halliday
Halliday Wine Companion (3/11/2020)
(Mount Mary Yarra Valley Quintet) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Halliday
Halliday Wine Companion (3/10/2020)
(Mount Mary Quintet Yarra Valley) Subscribe to see review text. | By Josh Raynolds
Vinous, South Australia, Victoria and a Bit Beyond (Sep 2022)
(Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet Red) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Vinous and JamesSuckling.com and The WINEFRONT and Halliday Wine Companion. (manage subscription channels) |
| Mount Mary Producer website
OUR HISTORY
John Middleton – Founder
John led a very active and healthy life during which much was achieved. He came to Lilydale in 1952 after service in the RAAF and medical training at Melbourne University. Although he had the opportunity to specialise, he chose to establish himself as a much-loved family doctor in what was then, a predominantly rural community. His fascination with wine began in his late teens and never faded. Mount Mary was the vehicle by which he fulfilled his dream to produce wines of great quality. John died in 2006 at 82 years of age, after a short illness.
Mount Mary is a family owned, single vineyard estate located in the heart of the Yarra Valley which lies in the south-eastern corner of Australia to the east of Melbourne in the state of Victoria. Established in 1971 by John and Marli Middleton, Mount Mary was one of the first vineyards planted in the resurgence of the Yarra Valley as a premium wine producing region.
The inspiration behind the planting of vines in the Yarra Valley came from the Swiss settlers of the 1850’s. These worldly and hard working immigrants had been greatly influenced by the French wine producers and recognised the climatic parallels the Yarra Valley shared with Bordeaux and Burgundy.
After extensive visits to the wine producing areas of the world in the late 1960’s, and in particular those of Bordeaux and Burgundy, John and Marli became fixated on French premium wine. They resolved to find a suitable site upon which to establish a small commercial vineyard with the intention of making elegant, low alcohol wines from French varieties. John was obsessed at this stage with an idea put in his head by Colin Preece of Great Western, that Australia was yet to produce a refined and elegant Cabernet. John saw it as his duty to work towards this.
And so it was that in 1971, John and Marli stumbled upon the property known as Mount Mary. Surprisingly this ideally located, gentle north facing slope had not been planted to the vine yet they immediately recognised it as being ideal for their purpose. The first plantings were completed by mid 1972 and today Mount Mary has around 40 acres under vine representing 18 varieties of varying age and distribution.
The four wines produced by Mount Mary come from 10 varieties. Two wines are based on Bordeaux blends accounting for 8 varieties and two wines are the common varietals from Burgundy. Over the past few years we have been developing a new blend from the Rhone Valley based on 7 varieties not previously planted here. For those of you who add things up, the 18th variety is Pinot blanc which we have never done anything with but who knows what the future holds!
Mount Mary has established a dedicated clientele of private mailing list customers and has a national distributor to selected restaurants and retail outlets. We place great importance on consistency of style and quality as well as shying away from public exposure and promotion. We have always preferred to let the wines do the talking.
OUR ENVIRONMENT
More than half the land area of Mount Mary is not directly related to wine production. The health of our property is of primary concern and we have the long term objective of being self-sufficient in energy and water. We are also keen to limit our impact on the environment through revegetation and weed control. Despite the many challenges that have been presented to us over the past few years, progress towards our environmental goals continues. Whilst we still have a long way to go in terms of becoming the ideal environmentally aware organisaton, we have continued with our planting program and our water and energy system designs. This year work has begun on the reticulation of our harvested water supplies, the modernisation of our winery wastewater management and the energy efficiency of winery. Our revegetation areas are already attracting increased numbers of native birds and our Snow Gum conservation area is looking good. We are continuing with our program of collecting a variety of native seed for propagation.
In the past two years we have been fortunate to be a part of Melbourne Water’s Stream Frontage program. Although both drought and flood have played a part in limiting the establishment of young plants, we will continue to work on these areas through 2011. Also on the agenda is the completion of our gully wetland project.
The ultimate goal of our environmental works is to be energy and water efficient relying less on outside supply, provide additional habitat for native species and to limit our negative impacts by containing and treating waste products on site. Renewable power, water collection and recycling and redesigned facilities are at the centre of these improvements.
2018 Mount Mary Quintet2018 QUINTET
44% Cabernet sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 16% Cabernet franc, 5% Malbec, 5% Petit verdot
RELEASE NOTE
Our passion and commitment toward the Bordeaux family of grapes and their suitability to the Yarra Valley remains as strong as ever. The drier half of the 2018 growing season was so perfectly suited to the Quintet varieties. We feel in time the 2018 will be considered in the top echelon of all Quintets produced since the inaugural commercial release in 1976. It has a strikingly deep, vibrant hue when poured into the glass and such an energy that runs through both the aromatics and the palate. The nose shows all the hallmark characteristics of our Quintet blend from the great vintages; cassis, cherry, chocolate and a hint of varietal Yarra Cabernet leafiness are all present in the aroma profile. The palate is medium weight but with such intensity and concentration. There is a real complexity of fruit flavours interwoven with balanced oak and coupled with that quintessential Quintet structure (soft but grainy, persistent tannin).Mount Mary QuintetOur vineyard is planted to Cabernet sauvignon (50%), Merlot (25%), Cabernet franc (15%), Malbec (5%) and Petit verdot (5%). The percentage of each variety that goes into the final blend changes with the season as factors such as fruitfulness and fruit set vary. The greatest influence we have over the quality of this wine is deciding when to pick each variety. This determines not only the flavours but the quality of tannins, the acid and alcohol levels. These varieties ferment on skins for around 12-14 days. This is followed by 22 months of barrel maturation, with 25% of the blend in large format oak (1500L or larger), and 30% in new barriques (225L). The remaining wine is matured in 2-5 year old barriques. Minimal fining and filtration is carried out prior to bottlingRed Bordeaux BlendRed Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes. Permitted grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and rarely Carménère.Today Carménère is rarely used, with Château Clerc Milon, a fifth growth Bordeaux, being one of the few to still retain Carménère vines. As of July 2019, Bordeaux wineries authorized the use of four new red grapes to combat temperature increases in Bordeaux. These newly approved grapes are Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Castets, and Arinarnoa.
Wineries all over the world aspire to making wines in a Bordeaux style. In 1988, a group of American vintners formed The Meritage Association to identify wines made in this way. Although most Meritage wines come from California, there are members of the Meritage Association in 18 states and five other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Israel, and Mexico.Australia Wine Australia (Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation) | Australian Wines (Wikipedia)Victoria Wines of Victoria (Victorian Wine Industry Association)Yarra Valley Wine Yarra Valley (Yarra Valley Wine Growers Association) |
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