Mount Mary Quintet 2006

By , 23 September 2015

Mount Mary Quintet 2006

Fair dinkum.

A mysterious benefactor (okay, Cabernet Sauvignon Report 2015 sponsor Derek Prout-Jones aka “DPJ”) recently gave me a bottle of Bordeaux-style red blend Quintet 2006 from Mount Mary in the Yarra Valley region of Victoria, Australia, saying nothing other than he would be interested in my comments.

Initially, I was a bit underwhelmed. The nose showed more red than black fruit, some floral perfume, oyster shell and the merest hint of forest floor which comes with time in bottle. The palate was medium bodied with fresh acidity and oh so fine tannins. Alcohol by volume a mere 12.9%. Pure and precise, which is to say free of defect, it felt almost too pared back. I decided to keep the remainder of the bottle overnight…

24 hours later, the wine was significantly more expressive, the fruit not just intact but better delineated and I was more convinced of its class. Turns out this is billed as “Australia’s most Bordeaux-like ‘claret’” and according to Wine-searcher.com has an average price of R1 513 a bottle on the open market. I guess I would’ve liked a touch more savoury detail but equally I had to admire how extraordinarily youthful it appeared (especially relative to most South African wine of the same age). You can’t have your cake and eat it, as they say.

Winemag rating: 92/100.

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