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Chambers Rosewood

Rare Muscat

Rutherglen - Australia
Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

The Rare Muscat started with a base wine from the 1890’s by W.H. Chambers, meaning the solera has been managed by four generations of the Chambers family. Any movement into and within the solera is dependent on having suitable young material to enter, and any wine selected must exhibit structure and intensity as well as appropriate aromatics to complement the older material. Any shortfall in any of these attributes will be magnified as wines age. Produced only once or twice a decade, each release of this wine cements Chambers’ legacy as one of the great wine estates of the world.

Excluding the period from 2015 to 2022, all fruit was hand picked at a higher Baumé (16º+ preferred). The grapes were de-stemmed and sent to a stainless-steel tank. Depending upon rot pressure, the must was either inoculated with yeast or a wild ferment was allowed. Only a partial fermentation of the juice was undertaken (usually 2º to 3º Bé depending upon initial fruit ripeness) before the must was placed into the press for juice extraction. Fermenting juice was initially fortified to 16% alcohol to arrest the fermentation with neutral grape spirit (~ 96% alcohol). The resultant wine was then transferred to tank for settling prior to crossflow filtration. After that, the alcohol was adjusted to 18% and transferred into old, large casks for aging. The cask volume varied from 225L up to 5000L. Individual vintages and vineyards were kept as separate wines until blending. At this point, selected wines entered the solera system, which is made up of two stages: one is a series of small barrels (quarter casks through to puncheons) and the other is an 1,800L cask from which the bottles are drawn. At bottling, the wine receives a small dosage of sulfur. No fining.

Stats

  • Grapes: 100% Muscat à petit grains rouge (Frontignac)
  • Vineyard: Convent Block - Cellar Block - Pig Paddock Block - House Block
  • Vine Age: 50-years-old
  • Soil Type: Red duplex over clay
  • Viticulture: Sustainable
  • Fermentation: Inoculated – stainless-steel
  • Skin Contact: 48 hours to 5 days
  • Aging: 1st aging as individual parcels and vintages - 2nd aging in solera in barrels ranging 100-2,500L
  • Alcohol: 16.9%
  • Residual Sugar: 377 g/L
  • pH: 3.41
  • Total Acidity: 8.9 g/L
  • Total SO2: 61 ppm
  • Total Production: 33 cases
  • UPC: 767749009052

Tasting Notes

One of the world’s great fortified wines, with intense, decadent, and endlessly deep flavors of raisin, black cherry, and toffee. The palate unfolds into layers of spice, caramel, and dried fig. It is silky, powerful, and impossibly long on the finish.

Press & Reviews

Vinous

97

"One of the world’s great fortified wines, with intense, decadent, and endlessly deep flavors of raisin, black cherry, and toffee. The palate unfolds into layers of spice, caramel, and dried fig. It is silky, powerful, and impossibly long on the finish."

- Josh Raynolds

Wine Advocate

99

"Tasted again in March 2016, the NV Rare Muscat has a deep brown color with a distinctive green tinge to the rim. The nose is, in a word, incredible and terribly difficult to describe, which is a great thing. Rancio doesn't begin to capture the complex, oxidative signature: honey coated walnuts, molasses, dates, sandalwood, baking spices, old chesterfields, aniseed and potpourri with fleeting, ethereal wafts of incense, roasted nut and exotic spice notes. Rich, unctuous and gratuitously multi-layered, this is one for the hedonists."

- Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Wine Enthusiast

100

"Not a Cellar Selection in the traditional sense of requiring additional aging, this venerable wine (it contains some material over 100 years old) is ready to drink now, but should hold in the bottle indefinitely. It's dark coffee-brown, with delectable aromas of rancio, pressed flowers, molasses and honey, yet despite enormous concentration avoids excessive weight. Amazingly complex and fresh on the neverending finish."

- Joe Czerwinski

Producer


Chambers Rosewood

Region


Rutherglen

Country


Australia

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