2006 Quintet Cabernet Sauvignon

Vivid ruby. Strikingly pure and complex bouquet of redcurrant, cherry, spicecake, tobacco and cedar. Pliant, focused red berry flavors are given depth by notes of mocha and cola, finishing with silky tannins and a slow-building mineral quality. With its clarity and lingering spiciness, this reminds me of a high-end Pauillac.

Comprised of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc and small proportions of Malbec and Petit Verdot, the 2006 Quintet spent 22 months in barrel, 30% of which was large format and just 30% new oak. Winemaker Rob Hall explained that John Middleton liked this wine to come in at around 12.5% alcohol if at all possible and of course it can be a challenge to get phenolics ripe at this level of lightness. But if anyone can do it in this area, Mount Mary can – this vintage came in at a modest 12.9%. Deep garnet in color, this wine has restrained aromas of cassis, dried Mediterranean herbs, graphite and loam plus pinches of cardamom and cloves. Light to medium-bodied with high acid and medium-firm finely grained tannins, this wine finishes very long. It’s still a little tight knit and needs 2-3 years to open, thereafter evolving through the next 8-10 years and keeping to 2024+. If this caliber of grapes were produced in Bordeaux they would have chaptilised and put a lot more oak on it, blurring this wonderful expression of the land...shame about the filtration though, particularly on such a delicate wine!||The late John Middleton’s cult estate is now in the hands of sons Nick and Sam Middleton with Rob Hall making the wines for the last eight years. According to Nick and Sam, John was pretty hands-on and fastidious right up until his death in 2006. He realized the potential dangers of Brettanomyces relatively early-on - some of his wines from the 1990s display varying states of infection - and from 2002 the reds have all been filtered to offer some protection. To see a winery of such enormous potential handling Brett in this manner is a very big disappointment to me. Most wineries of this status have found other more successful and less damaging means of handling this menace. The current releases are unquestionably good, but I can’t help imagine how very great they could be. Wine Advocate.June, 2010