This wine is all about freshness and varietal character balanced by subtle age complexity from time spent in barrel.
Morris remains in the ‘sweet and rich' camp of Rutherglen. In the glass, the wine has a deep brown core with an amber rim. The nose opens with a rich, yet fresh bouquet of rose petals, preserved fruit and nuts. Luscious flavours of sweet spices and dried fruit fill the mouth with a long finish. With an average age of around eight years, the Classic Muscat has freshness and varietal character balanced by subtle age complexity from time in barrel.
The Morris family's journey began in 1859, when George Francis Morris planted their first vineyard near Rutherglen, Victoria. By 1885, the operation had expanded to over 600 acres, making it the largest winery in the Southern Hemisphere at that time. Despite setbacks from phylloxera in the late 1800s, the family re-established at the "Mia Mia" site in 1897 thanks to the sale of Charles Hughes Morris son of Georges prize-winning horse, Fairfield, to develop the property, the image of the horse is still on their labels today. Following in his father's footsteps, Madden Morris became the sixth-generation Chief Winemaker at Morris of Rutherglen. Growing up walking around the Cellar and tasting Muscats, Madden considers Rutherglen his home, noting that the region's supportive community is at the winery's heart.
Morris of Rutherglen have 80 hectares of easterly facing vineyards which are planted on red loam over red/yellow poldzotic clay soils. The red loam helps produce wines with greater flavour and richness. The vineyards gently slope, with the earlier budburst varieties being planted on the higher slopes, and the later budburst varieties on the lower slopes around 175 metres above sea level. The vines are grown on a single wire trellis 900mm high and are hand-pruned using the rod and spur method, relying only on natural rainfall. This produces lower-cropping vines that offer fruit of high sugar levels and concentrated flavours. The grapes were selected for hand harvesting between 15 to16 baume.
Once in the winery, the grapes were crushed and allowed to start fermentation. Once the desired baume level is reached, pressing takes place, and a high strength neutral spirit is added to stop fermentation, before being transferred into casks for maturation. At blending, a selection of wines from different vintages are chosen, each contributing special characteristics to make a wine with complexity; age, youthfulness, freshness of flavour and consistency of style.
Chocolate-based desserts, dates, dried figs, and ice cream.
