Mount Mary Vineyard Quintet 2023

The Wine

98 Pts Ryan Montgomery, JamesSuckling.com 'Black-fruited and perfumed, with aromas of blackcurrants, violets, licorice, cassia bark, graphite, blueberry compote, pomegranates, tobacco, mahogany, lead pencil shavings and balsamic strawberries. The palate is mid-weighted, with finely integrated tannins and balanced acidity leading into a textural, rounded and seamless mouthfeel. There’s an excellent balance of fruit, florals, earth and herbs, anchored by a mineral core. This Bordeaux blend with New World freshness is built for the ages yet offers plenty of early drinking appeal. What a wine. Drink or hold.'

97 Pts Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 'The 2023 Quintet is, like every other Quintet I've tasted in my life, pure joy. The wine is famous for its fine frame and floral aromatics, its ability to age what feels interminably and its unfettered expression of this corner of the Yarra Valley—Coldstream. While the cooler season of 2023 has shaped some of the elements of the wine, it remains true to its site and leaves a gentle cedar note trail through the memory. It has more pomegranate and cherry than cassis or blackberry, along with notes of violets, bay leaf and star anise even. It is a beautiful wine, one of my favorite Cabernets in this country. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under Diam cork. Drink 2025-2043.'

97 Pts Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion ‘47/28/15/6/4% cabernet sauvignon/merlot/cabernet franc/petit verdot/malbec. In a hark back to cooler years, this was picked after the rain at the start of April. Brightly coloured, the result is a gorgeous wine; perfumed and beguiling with pure, blackcurrant fruit aromas, graphite, violets and subtle, oak-derived cedar and pencil shavings. The palate is classically medium bodied with lovely persistence, the fruit supported by balanced, fine-grained tannins and equally fine acidity. Like all great Mount Mary Quintets this will age gracefully over the next two decades but, given a good decant, is also balanced an approachable enough to enjoy in its youth. Drink 2027-2040.' 

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