Chambers Rosewood Rutherglen Old Vine Muscat NV  £25.79

Chambers Rosewood Rutherglen Old Vine Muscat NV​

Stephen Chambers is the sixth generation of his family to make wine at the Rosewood winery, where he took over winemaking in 2001. This venerable winery, founded in 1858 by William Chambers, is one of the most fabled in Rutherglen. A charming, northeastern Victorian town, Rutherglen still speaks of the gold rush, which led to the development of its wine industry in the 1850s.

Chambers Rosewood makes distinctive yet classical wines from their 50 hectares of vineyards. The Rutherglen Muscats are made from the darker-skinned Muscat à Petits Grains Rouge variety (a mutation of Muscat à Petits Grains Blanc) and winemaking has been subtly changed in recent years to make fresher, cleaner wines. Each vineyard plot is fermented separately in closed, stainless steel tanks to preserve the grapes’ perfumes. Fermentation is stopped when the must reaches between 14.5 and 15.5 Baumé (potential alcohol), by adding neutral grape spirit as is traditional in fortified wine production. Upon settling, the wine is racked and placed into old oak casks (from 10 to 100-years-old, and 225 litres up to 5,000 litres in size) until required for blending. The average age of the Rutherglen Muscat blend is four years, and this has increased in recent years as new vineyards have come into production. In exceptional vintages, grapes from Chambers Rosewood’s low-yielding centenarian vines are used for the ‘Old Vine Muscat’, made using a separate, special solera.

The vineyards are located on the fringes of the Rutherglen Township, slightly to the North West, where Chambers produce drier style Muscats which express rose petal characters. The vines are hand pruned to a rod and spur system which allows each vine to be viewed on an individual basis. The trellising system is a single wire with a sprawling canopy.

Fruit is harvested in March and April. On arrival in the winery, the grapes are destemmed and the must placed into closed stainless steel fermenters where a short fermentation of between 0.5 to 4% ABV is performed. The must is then pressed using a Willmes airbag press and the fermenting juice is fortified with neutral grape spirit. The resultant wine is then placed into stainless steel tanks for settling. After settling, the wines are aged in old oak casks as individual vintages and vineyards until entry into the Old Vine Solera. The vintage needs to be of a level of quality to enter into this Solera, which is determined by taste.

Complex orange peel, raisin and rose petal aromas give way to a warming, luscious palate with a rich texture and a hint of wood spice. This incredibly concentrated wine has a clean, fresh finish.  Superb to sip on its own, with cheese or a wide variety of desserts.