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Viticultural & vinification notes		Winemakers comments
Vintage conditions	Dunsborough is warm enough in late March to bring about some raisining and concentration in this grape and yet dry enough to inhibit the growth of botrytis. The vines are netted to exclude birds.	Colour   Nose     Palate	Red with a slight orange tone and a brown-orange hue Intense aroma of dried fruit, musk stick, Xmas cake and toffee apple with prune and nutty notes. Richly flavoured with dried fruit, toffee, caramel and quince flavours. A luxurious sweet wine matched by intense flavour and long, long flavour. A rare and special release.
Vineyard	Dunsborough Hand pruned to rods Hand picked
Grape variety	Brown Muscat (Muscat a Petit Grains rouge) These are old, low yielding vines.
Maturation	In Puncheons of 500 litres under a tin roof outside the cellar.
Wine analysis	Alc/Vol:           13.2% Acidity:            7.2 g/l pH:                 3.50 Residual sugar:0.1g/l

To make our ‘Very Special Old Muscat’ we mature Garnet in old barrels. We began the exercise in the mid nineteen eighties. We maintain a standing stock of about 3000 litres. It now includes contributions from many vintages and its average age is slowly increasing as time goes by. Maturation in barrel moves the colour into the orange spectrum, concentrates the sugar and the aroma while adding mysterious nuances that appear only in old wines. This exercise adds to the cost if only because the stuff is evaporating all the time. This is not a way to get rich. Rather, it satisfies the winemaker’s interest in fantasy, romance, mystery and wonderment. It’s about pursuing an objective regardless of the cost. Understandably, this puts sheen on the winemaker’s halo and gives him confidence in his own integrity.

Approach this wine with reverence. Genuflect, go down on your knees and moisten your lips. Swoon. Take no notice of our accountant as he grinds his teeth while reflecting upon the mathematics of compound interest, inappropriate production decisions and the winemaker’s lack of interest in the colour of the bottom line.

Gold Medal Perth Royal Wine Show 2010

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Silver Medal Qantas Wine Show of WA 2010

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Awards History Click here