Two wines stand out from the thousands I have tasted since the last edition of this newletter. One, simply because it is perhaps the best young Australian wine I have tasted for several years, the other because it is the culmination of more than twenty years of pioneering and sheer determination. Mount Mary’s 2000 Quintet Blend is not only one of the Wines of the Edition, but is the 2002 OnWine Wine of the Year. Previous winners have been Rosemount Estate’s Mountain Blue Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 1996, Cullen’s Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 1998 and Hardy’s Eileen Hardy Shiraz 1998. Not a bad lunch they’d make! Mount Mary Quintet 2000 Even finer than the exceptional 1999 release, listed as a finalist for last year’s OnWine Wine of the Year, this is the most exciting young cabernet blend I have ever tasted from Mount Mary. Its deeply scented fragrance of cassis, violets and dark plums, lightly polished cedar and chocolate oak precedes an underlay of gravel and mocha. An essay in creamy vinous texture and restrained strength, its palate bursts with dark berry fruits, revealing layers of smoky, herbal complexity suggestive of dried leaves. Perfectly ripe, sumptuous and firm, it is framed by powder-fine tannins. At 12.2% alcohol, it should be mandatory tasting for anyone aspiring to make top-class cabernet in Australia. No apologies that this benchmark local expression of the left bank Bordeaux blend is hard to lay hands on. If you’re serious, you’ll find a way. Since this wine is not due for release until later in the year, do me a favour and don’t hassle the good Dr Middleton until he’s ready to sell it. That way I’ll be invited back to taste the 2001 edition. Marking very conservatively, it’s 19.4 (drink 2012-2020+), but it I might even rate it higher next time around. Tyrrell’s Vat 47 Chardonnay 2000 Vat 47 is covered in some detail on the back page of this issue, but the 2000 is my pick as the best wine ever to emerge under this famous and idiosyncratic label. Tyrrell’s have been at the cutting edge of the chardonnay game in Australia for longer than anyone else, and the latest vintage of its premier chardonnay is its best ever. From a significantly warmer and drier vintage than Hunter Valley winemakers are accustomed to, it carries more weight of fruit than typical for this label. Lightly smoky aromas of lemon, melon, white peach, cloves and cinnamon are enhanced with restrained dusty and vanilla oak influences. Long, chalky and savoury, its powerful weight and focused expression of fruit is finely harnessed with a restrained and controlled finish. I rate the wine at 19.0 (drink 2008-2012), and dip my lid to the memory of its creator, Murray Tyrrell.
