Brown Brothers Reserve Muscat

Notes sourced from Brown Brothers.

Reserve Muscat is made from Brown Muscat or Muscat a Petits Grains grapes. The fruit was grown in northern Victoria from the 1990 vintage until the 1997 harvest. The grapes were harvested at a baumé level of 18 degrees. Once fortification had taken place and fermentation was completed, the wine spent an average of five years in large old French and American oak barrels. It was bottled with an alcohol of 18%, a pH of 3.9, an acid level of 4.0 gr/l and a residual sugar level of 11 degrees baumé.

This delicious wood-matured Muscat has an attractive light tawny brown colour. Its nose exudes delicious flavours of ripe raisined Muscat fruit, clean fortifying spirit and nutty oak. The palate echoes these flavours. It is mouth-filling yet elegant in flavour, with a long clean finish. It successfully captures the essence of north-east Victoria’s famed Liqueur Muscats, without the extensive ageing of the older, traditional styles, which command such a premium, because of the time and effort required to produce them. Like all wood-matured fortified wines, it is a wine to drink and enjoy now. It has done all its improving and building of character in oak and will not continue to build in flavour in the bottle.The delicious, rich raisined flavours of this wine with its hints of sweet nutty oak and long clean finish, make it the perfect partner to desserts like a rich and moist plum pudding, studded with dried vine fruits and served with either a caramel sauce or a rich brandy butter. It also makes a delightful accompaniment to cheese platters, especially those including a tangy cloth matured cheddar or a mature blue and served with a generous handful of freshly roasted walnuts and dried muscatels.