Grand Muscadelle

Alcohol: 17.1%
Glucose & Fructose: 346.9 g/L
pH: 3.53
Titratable Acidity: 8.1 g/L

Produced from a minor white Bordeaux variety of the same name, these grapes are harvested late in the season to achieve maximum ripeness. Any sugar levels in excess of 15 baumé is desired. Typically harvest occurs mid-April to early May.

Once the fruit is crushed and de-stemmed the ‘must’ is placed directly into the press. Any fermentation occurs on the juice at this stage. After a minimal fermentation (sometimes less than 1 baumé) the juice is fortified with neutral grape spirit to between 16% alcohol. The neutral spirit is used to maximise the primary fruit characters of the variety. The wine is settled in stainless steel tank prior to cross flow filtration; after which the alcohol adjusted to between 18 and 19% prior to transfer to cask for maturation. The individual vineyards and vintages are left in cask until blending. Cask volumes vary from 900 litres up to 5000 litres.

In order for an individual wine to be considered for the Special its quality must be very high to exceptional. For this reason a wine of this quality may only be produced once or twice in 10 years. Age alone is not a determinant of quality.

The Grand Muscadelle is produced using a modified solero, which has been in operation since the late 19th Century and was established by WH Chambers (3rd Generation). It is possible that a very small amount of the original wine maybe still in the solero.

The solero consists of 2 stages. One is a series of small barrels (1/4 casks through to hogsheads) and the other is a 1500 litre cask from which the bottles are drawn. When moving the wine through the solera assessment of each barrel is undertaken to ensure absence of faults and optimum maturity. Any movement into and within the solera is dependent of having suitable young material to enter.

The wine is bottled on demand.

Deep Tawny colour with vanilla pod, coffee, toffee and caramel aromatics. A toffee mocha palate which builds to a mouth filling lusciousness. Maintains an elegance and ethereal quality on the palate with a finish that lasts for minutes.

James Suckling
#24 in the TOP 100 Australian Wines 2023 Rating: 97
A deep tawny-molasses hue. Old wines clearly involved in the meld. Scents of sticky date pudding, Indian spice rack, mahogany, walnut husk and ginger crystal. Delving deep, muscadelle's fermented lime chutney DNA is loud and clear. An impenetrably dense wine. A chiaroscuro of dark and light, as a lilt of volatility imparts length and levity to the dense, saturated palate. Screw cap. Drink or hold. Indefinitely. Ned Goodwin

Halliday Wine Companion
95 Points Halliday Rating 2022
98 Points Halliday Rating 2020

Oh my ... I could inhale the beauty of this muscadelle all day: so mellow, warm, inviting, fuelling the imagination with scents of caramel toffee, roasted salted nuts, prunes and strong roasted coffee. Riveting. And the palate, well, that is no disappointment. Believe it or not, the solera for this wine was established at the same time as the Rare levels of the company's muscat and muscadelle but, in the words of the maker, this wine has been 'driven younger in comparison'. That freshening lifts the intensity of flavour to an astonishing level. 375ml.

Jeni Port - Published 13 August 2021

James Suckling
#24 in the TOP 100 Australian Wines
2023 Rating: 97

Halliday Wine Companion
2024 Rating: 96
2022 Rating: 95
2020 Rating: 98

Wine Enthusiast (US)
2021 Rating: 96

TEXSOM International Wine Awards 2020 'Gold'

Wine & Spirits Magazine Top 100 Wineries
2020 - 93 Points