TASTING NOTE

Vibrant pink in colour, the wine has a light and delicate appearance. White peaches, musk and rose petal dominate the nose while flavours of boiled sweets and spice lead into a textured palate. A wine of great appeal, the retained carbon dioxide gives a mild frizzante effect resulting in a fresh and lively wine. Serve well chilled and enjoy while young and vibrant.

FOOD MATCHES

Mascarpone and seasonal fruit;
Berry tart with Homemade Raspberry Ice Cream

VINEYARD

The Brown Muscat grapes for this wine are from Swan Hill in the Sunraysia region of Victoria. A relatively arid region, the soil structure at this vineyard site comprises limestone, marine sands and clays that extend 90 metres deep. A small parcel of Shiraz grapes from Heathcote was added to provide vibrant colour and fresh berry aromatics.

THE  SEASON

The Swan Hill wine region has a continental climate meaning it has large temperature variations between summer and winter and between night and day. The many warm, sunny days and cool clear nights provided excellent ripening conditions. Rainfall at flowering and veraison combined with low humidity, resulted in near perfect vine growing conditions for Brown Muscat.

WINEMAKING

The fruit for the 2010 Fratelli Moscato was hand-picked at the Duffy Vineyard in the middle of February, at 12° baumé. The fruit was whole bunch pressed to stainless steel tanks where the juice was cold settled for 48 hours before being racked off juice lees. The juice was cold fermented to 6.3%v/v alcohol followed by weekly lees stirring over a period of two months in order to extract richness, texture and palate weight. After racking, the wine was blended with a small parcel of Heathcote Shiraz to add colour, red berry flavour and tannin structure. Filtered and bottled under counter-pressure, the wine was bottled under crown seal in June 2010.