Making Sense of the Sensuous: Rutherglen Muscat

As Muhammed Ali might have said, if he wasn’t such a fine Muslim: ‘It just can’t be beat’. For there is no wine in the world like Rutherglen muscat. With its incomparable lusciousness, sweetness and concentration and the ethereal complexity it acquires with maturation in large old casks, it’s one of the unique wines of Australia, joining in this respect wines like Hunter Valley semillon and our indigenous sparkling red. But there’s a special indulgent decadence about a bottle of mature muscat, just as there’s the opportunity to connect with a timeless piece of Australian winemaking tradition and experience. Inhale the fragrance of a Chambers Rare Muscat and it’s impossible not to be transported back through the years, in Tardis-like fashion, for at least a precious moment or two.

Personally, though, I’ve always found muscat labels a little hard to distinguish between. Different makers have used different nomenclature for their wines, so it’s been difficult to compare one to another. How does the ‘Liqueur’ muscat of one maker shape up against the ‘Premium’ of another’s? Can you tell a muscat’s quality or age by bottle shape, label, or price? Usually not. That’s why I’m so pleased that a group of the leading makers of Rutherglen Muscat have got themselves together to establish and market a Classification of Rutherglen Muscat.

The system evolved by the ‘Muscat of Rutherglen Network’ works a little like the system used to label cognac. It’s about as precise or arbitrary a system as the long-established scale of names from 3-Star to VS, VSOP, Napoleon and XO, and involves the use of four levels of classification. In this case they are ‘Rutherglen Muscat’, ‘Classic Rutherglen Muscat’, ‘Grand Rutherglen Muscat’ and ‘Rare Rutherglen Muscat’ in ascending order of quality. The idea is that the wines reflect a progression of richness, complexity and intensity as they progress up the scale. Wines which qualify for the various quality levels are labelled with these terms and also carry the distinctive oval Muscat of Rutherglen logo.

As you can see from the table opposite, the classification is not specifically based on age or length of maturation, although there’s naturally a broad correlation between the higher levels and the muscat’s maturity.

Although its contribution could hardly be over-stated, age for its own sake does not necessarily equate to a great muscat. When tasting most of the wines involved in this classification, the only area in which I was marginally disappointed concerned the presence of old wines actually deficient in younger material. While there’s no denying the value of old muscat and its sweet/savoury rancio development, without the presence of livelier and fresher material, the concentration and complexity of old wine simply expires with a short finish which breaks up at the end of the palate.

Son David has continued Mick Morris’s approach of using newer wine to freshen up older blends of muscat. One of Mick Morris’ secrets is that he doesn’t blend up his best muscats every year, since they demand exceptional seasons. ‘You don’t just put anything in; only the best stuff is suitable for the best wines’, he says. ‘If we have three or four years without good seasons for muscat the wine can get a bit old before we get a good year to freshen it up.
‘When we make the wines we segregate muscats into three or four different categories, the best of which are matured in small wood, the second best probably get the same thing, then the third and fourth best might not even see small wood. We sell them as cheaper as earlier-drinking wines.’

Morris’ Old Premium Rare Muscat is a very mature blend, most of which presently dates back to the vintages of 1970, 1972 and 1974. Mick confesses that Morris actually keeps a ‘better’ one at the cellar door for ‘special purchasers’. It’s not shown or released as a commercial wine and it fetches around $120 per bottle, direct from David Morris himself. So now you know.
The ‘Muscat of Rutherglen Network’ is made up of All Saints, Bullers, Campbells, Chambers, Morris, Pfeiffer, Seppelt and Stanton & Killeen. It is the operators of these companies who have chosen the classification levels and operate the system whereby muscat is allocated into the different niches of muscat hierarchy. To some extent it’s a little like the media judging the media, which nobody really entertains very seriously, but only a brave man would argue that these guys don’t possess more accumulated wisdom about muscat than the rest of the wine world put together.

To this time 29 muscats are included within this classification, including several so limited in quantity that they are only available from some of the cellar-doors. One of the problems with muscat has always been its scarcity: its very nature is its tiny production.

Made from a variant of muscat a petits grains rouge, known as Rutherglen Brown Muscat, the first wines identifiable to the present style of Rutherglen muscat were fashioned as far back as the 1850s. Given that we’re talking about a single variety made in a single region, the diversity cultivated between the different muscats made by the different makers is nothing less than extraordinary.

As you might expect, Mick Morris has some definite views on the way that winemakers can influence their styles of muscat. ‘Everybody has a different feeling for different wines and it’s the same with muscat. For example we don’t like any new oak, so we only use old oak. But others prefer new oak and don’t mind if it’s a little obvious. Some like to add acid. We don’t, since we reckon acid accumulates as muscat ages. Others do, however, with a view that acid gives a wine more stability’, he says.

Morris also believes that the issue of when growers pick their muscat is a major influence on style. ‘It depends on a maker’s philosophy, for some styles are drier than others. We try to get the maximum fruit and flavour and also look for complexity and balance.

Irrigation is another key factor. ‘Nobody irrigated their vineyards in the olden days. Today some makers irrigate, while some cane cut and others put their wines into a vacuum pan to concentrate sweetness. Today there’s also the modern technology to take volatiles out of the wine, concentrate them and return them. Some makers choose to do this. Chambers and Morris are still non-irrigated, but where you can today you will do so to get an assured crop. We’d be irrigating if we had the water resources, but there’s no doubt that irrigation does affect the wine’s intensity of flavour.’ Please login to post comment