Viticulture

Muscat à Petit Grain Rouge (known locally as Brown Muscat) is used in the production of this wine. Its sourced from a single grower in the northern Margaret River region of Yallingup. The fruit is picked very late in the growing season when the grapes are starting to raisin on the vine. This is to allow for the concentration of sugars and flavours which is very important in the production of this wine type. The fruit is then handpicked when it’s in the range of 16.5 to 17.5 baume.

Winemaking

The Muscat grapes are crushed into a small fermenter and left to soak on skins for 2 to 3 days to help rehydrate and extract more sugar from the raisins. The sugar level will increase during this time. Yeast is then added to start the fermentation which only lasts a few days. During this time, the ferment is pressed to extract all juice from the skins. When the desired sugar level is reached, 95% spirit is added to stop the fermentation, taking the alcohol level of the wine to around 18%. The addition of spirit stops the fermentation leaving a large quantity of unfermented sugar leading to a very sweet wine. The sweet wine is then transferred to old 500 litre barrels known as puncheons. Here, the wine will mature for many years in barrel, slowly evolving into complex, sweet and luscious wines. This wine is made in most years, leading to a collection of barrels dating back to 2005. The art of making Liqueur Muscat is in the blending. It involves taking all the different aged barrels and blending them in the portions that produce a complex, lush and fresh wine ready for immediate consumption.

Storage / Bottling

Maturation took place over many years in old, neutral 500 litre puncheons. This current Liqueur Muscat was blended in December 2021. It was bottled into a premium 500 ml bottle under cork.

Awards & Achievements

Ray Jordan Wine Guide 2024 | 93 points