After drinking the usual array of Shirazes and Cabernets, it is surprising how light this wine is. Flavours move from strawberry fruit to candy to rose petals to earthy components. However, this wine is really about texture. The mouthfeel is excellent, despite the lightness of the wine. The move from fruit to savoury components to soft tannic elements is seemless. The finish is very long. Needless to say, this Quintet is elegant and well balanced.
The wine is still vibrant despite its 9 years and has many years in front of it. Primary characters and certainly ripe fruit in the Yarra Valley way (including earthy flavours) still dominate. It will have another 10 years in front of it without any doubt. One of the best year 2000 wines of Australia (many wineries struggled that year).
Mt. Mary Quintet occupies a unique position in the Australian red wine spectrum. It is a serious, light red wine with astonishing length, texture and balance. Good Bordeaux would often be bigger, but not offer the sensuous fruit element which this wine has. In the vocabulary of French reviewers: 'this is a female wine with excellent body and form'.
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