Chambers Rosewood
Victoria – Rutherglen
About Chambers Rosewood
Chambers Rosewood. To speak of them is to invoke a lineage of Australian wine that predates the era of critter labels, huge scoring Shiraz, fancy cellar-door experiences, the natural wine revolution and even the establishment of classic Australia. Founded in 1858 in Rutherglen, Victoria, Chambers is one of those rare estates where continuity feels like an act of devotion. For generations, the Chambers family has practiced the quiet, steadfast craft of making fortified wines of impossible depth — the kind that smell like time itself and taste like something you’d find hidden in a cathedral cellar.
In the pantheon of Australian producers, Chambers occupies that mystical realm reserved for the chosen few. Their Muscats and Tokays (though now called Muscadelle or Topaque, to satisfy the European bureaucrats) are not wines so much as revelations: viscous, kaleidoscopic, endlessly layered. They are the geographical identity of Rutherglen in a bottle. And while others chased fashion or scale, Chambers persisted in the slow, human art of solera blending, ensuring that each release carries with it the soul of rearview vintages. Now under sixth generation stewardship, Steve Chambers’ steady hand brings a modern sensibility humming beneath the heritage: a refinement of balance, a gentler extraction, a quiet nod to freshness without surrendering the grandeur of tradition.
Stephen collects fruit for his wines from century-old vines, whose intense flavors help convey Chambers’ signature style, along with some newer younger vines. He grows a wide range of varieties, Muscat and Muscadelle being at the forefront, plus Palomino, Roussanne, Riesling, Traminer, Shiraz, Durif, and Mondeuse to name a few. The estate also uses the rare Gouais grape, a parent of Chardonnay and Riesling. Some of the vines are as much as 120-years-old, and the vines also neighbor Chambers’ 2,000 acre sheep farm. During harvest, the grape pressings are fed to the sheep, providing extra sustenance during dry periods. In return, the sheep provide natural fertilizer among the vines and eat the undergrowth for natural weed control. In the cellar, they use large tanks, oak casks & barrels, with some casks dating back to the 1800s.
In tasting Chambers today, one feels a bridge across the eras of Australian wine, from the old Rutherglen magic of the mid-19thcentury to present day, where Chambers remains in the haut de gamme of world-class, age worthy wines. They aren’t trying to be traditional or contemporary; they simply are, by virtue of being true to themselves. These wines bear the soul of the region and in doing so, remind us what authenticity really tastes like: not a concept or a trend, but the enduring pulse of a place over centuries of family dedication.