ICONS - Mount Mary Quintet

Written by Ian Robertson on 2nd December 2007

In 1971, Dr John Middleton turned a hobby into a business.

That business became a beacon of the fine wine community in Australia, and at the forefront of a host of rare and collectable wines was Mount Mary’s Quintet.

Middleton discovered and fell in love with table wine at an early age. In a varied career life, he spent time as a meteorologist in the RAAF, which he maintained helped him as a viticulturist, studied medicine at Melbourne University, and despite graduating with honours and winning many awards, he shunned a life as a ‘Collins Street specialist’ and went on to become a GP in Lilydale, Victoria.

His interest in wine continued to grow however, and a family garden started to become his scientific testing ground as he learnt about how growing grapes and making wine worked. He started to consult manuals and textbooks on the subject, and was befriended by colleagues who helped him out – notably Colin Preece of Seppelt, and Bob Travis, a noted grower from the Napa Valley in the US.

Finally, using cuttings he had sourced from Seppelt, he chose a site in the Yarra Valley with good grey-clay soil and started Mount Mary.

Middleton’s motivation was to make lean, elegant wines of structure. Not for him the overblown, warm climate wines that much of Australia was known for. In fact, he was well known for the disdain he had for the Shiraz grape. So, the Mount Mary roll call of wines consisted of a Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Triolet (a white Bordeaux blend), and the Quintet. All wines hold an exalted status to collectors and tasters alike – but one is exalted above the others.

The Quintet is a blend of the red Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot. The key words when describing the wine style are elegance, structure and complexity. Middleton favoured the taut, tight and lean flavours of great old red Bordeaux. Alcohol is reigned in. Grapes are picked with acid levels firmly in mind, and tannin structures are such that the wines are often very long lived. This is an icon that harkens back to Old World wine making at its best.

But it is not for everyone, obviously!

The world’s most famous wine writer, American Robert Parker Jnr, had been trying to get his hands on Mount Mary Quintet for quite some time, and recently, he succeeded. Middleton, not really feeling he needed any validation from Parker about his wine quality, obviously never felt the need to send him any wine to taste.

In Parker’s Wine Advocate No.161 October 2005, the following review was published. The proprietor of Mount Mary has never wanted me to taste his wines, which are revered by segments of the Australian press, but with some stealth work, I was able to secure a few vintages. In addition to the 2001 Quintet, I was able to taste the 1998, 1997, 1995, and 1994. For my taste, only the 2001 merited a score higher than 80 points [Note - he gave it 83]. The attempt appears to be to emulate a Bordeaux petit chateau, but none were as fine, being lean, high in acid, austere, and meagerly endowed. They will not improve with age. The 2001 has slightly more to it than the older vintages. It is difficult to understand what merit these wines possess.

Parker has been copping an ever increasing amount of criticism from those concerned that his liking for big, full bodied, ripe red wines is creating an increase in that wine style as makers search for better “Parker points” in order to help sell their wines. It seems to me no coincidence that a wine noted for its elegance and leanness of structure is a wine that Parker seems to dislike!

Dr Middleton died at the age of 78 from a heart condition in June, 2006. For many, it is hard to imagine Mount Mary without him – however he has prepared the next generation as his son David has effectively taken the reins. David is also ensuring the future by preparing the next generation of Mount Mary, two of John’s grandsons, are well drilled!

Wine Without Wank reviews Mount Mary Quintet.