Newsletter 1985

This year’s vintage at Mount Mary was our eleventh. In midyear we attended a vertical tasting of our Cabernets from 1976 to 1984, which had been organised by Stewart Langton, from Fowles Overett. The 1984 Wine still in cask, was served as a cask sample. This was a memorable night for us, both interesting and rewarding. It showed that a consistent wine style has become recognisable as Mount Mary Cabernets. Colour, brilliance, aroma, bouquet and flavour each in turn belonged to that ‘style’, so did quality, elegance and finesse. None of the older wines showed that they had reached their peak and there was no evidence of impending senescence. The variations created by the weather changes of each year were also recognisable, being superimposed over the wine’s structure. The various elements of a wine’s constitution such as colour, aroma, flavour, are all affected, and there are other important sensory and textural differences in each year which occur in the acids, the tannins and other phenols. Sunshine and Heat are the two most important weather elements apart from Moisture. It was fortunate that we were able to have the opinion of Stephen Spurrier, a well known English wine authority, who attended the function. He referred to all the wines in glowing terms, liking the 1983, our latest release, best. He said that he imagined himself sitting down to a Classified Bordeaux tasting, of 1st and 2nd growths.