Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet 2016

The Wine

"46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 5% Malbec and 3% Petit Verdot. 2016 saw a very even spread of quality and consistency across  all five Quintet varieties. This has resulted in an extremely complex  and compelling wine which shows brilliant purity of fruit. On the nose there is the perfect balance of red and dark fruits. Cherries and cranberries along with plums, blackcurrant, violets and cedar all contribute to this wine’s attractive aroma. There is spice and toasty characters contributed by French oak. The palate is filled with rich, perfectly ripe fruit, chocolate, liquorice and backed by grainy, firm  tannin adding to the wine’s exceptional length and age-worthiness.  This is the fifth consecutive vintage where we have experienced near perfect conditions for these Quintet varieties. The 2016 Quintet is drinking superbly now and will be even more impressive with time."  Mount Mary

97 points James Halliday – Australian Wine Companion '45% cabernet sauvignon, 25% merlot, 20% cabernet franc, 6% malbec, 4% petit verdot, separately vinified and matured in French oak (35% new) for 18-22 months before blending and bottling. The ultimate Bordeaux blend, both in theory and reality. Almost butterfly wing transparency, yet compelling intensity and length, the flavours spanning cassis to blueberry to plum and blackcurrant, all with a textured backing. Drink by 2041.

97 points Gary Walsh – The Wine Front 'It’s only 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, with 26% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 5% Malbec and 3% Petit Verdot. A different wine to the (relatively) throaty 2015, but not a lesser one. Such perfume. Such finesse. It’s a flat out joy to smell, and to taste. Violets, cedar, red and black fruits, tobacco, pencils, marzipan and aniseed. Just into medium-bodied, well-etched and sure-footed, much like the kitten, who’s tongue the tannin sports. Delightful flavour of small red (mainly) and black berries, deft and precise, with a finish that’s long and crisp, which leaves no doubt about the quality of this wine. Line and length. Fragrance and poise. Subtle, yet thoroughly persuasive. Gentle rasp of tannin cleans the mouth. It’s a rare bird, this Cabernet. Drink 2019-2038+

Two things are well known about the Mount Mary Quintet: it ages prodigiously (gracefully, slowly), and it comes wrapped in a light-weight frame. It speaks eloquently of the Yarra Valley and of the varieties from which it is constructed. It is one of the few wines that I collect each year without consideration of vintage conditions. Like every other aspect of this iconic estate, the focus in the vineyards is on the long term, and the sites are being worked with the future very much in mind. The eventual phase-out of herbicides and shift toward organics is being viewed (quite rightly) as a complex, all-encompassing holistic shift. As we all know, it does not happen overnight, but all good things are worth waiting for. Tradition is often responsible for a sense of stoicism, a “slow and steady” approach. This is very much the pace at Mount Mary, and this reviewer could not have been more comforted and thrilled by that. Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate

‘…Quintet, which has always been made with all five Bordeaux varieties. Its finer, perfumed, moderate-alcohol style ages superbly well, especially in top vintages–the 1990 is still in its prime. The other wines are similarly styled and are some of the most age-worthy wines in the Yarra. Tasting a run of Quintet vintages showed that, despite some warmer years, this classically styled blend remains in world-beating form.
Angus Hughson, Vinous