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Question

Muscat of Samos- Location

Answer 1

Island by Turkish shores. 800m terraces on steep hillsides.

Answer 2

Samos Doux: fortified before ferment Samos VDN: fortified to interrupt ferment Samos Nectar: unfortified dried grapes wine up to 14% ABV + 3 yrs in cask

Answer 3

50% of annual production exported to France

Answer 4

Port like dessert wine. Aromatic, powerful. Mavrodaphne= "Black Laurel"

Answer 5

South of Peloponnese peninsula

Answer 6

Main grape is Mavrodaphne. Korinthiaki also allowed. Fortified at 4% ABV and usually cask aged resulting in tawny style.

Answer 7

Mistela (sweet, stable mixture of grape & alcohol resulting from addition of alcohol to early fermenting juice) fortified to 15% ABV. Simple fresh perfumes fruit of the Muscat of Alexandria variety but none of the textural or aromatic by products of fermentation.

Answer 8

North East Victoria

Answer 9

Warm, high levels of sunshine with wide diurnal range and long dry autumns

Answer 10

Deep, moisture retaining, alluvial red loam

Answer 11

Brown Muscat (Muscat a Petits Grains Rouge)

Answer 12

The long dry growing season allows for grapes, unaffected by botrytis, to shrivel and achieve 17 degrees to 18 degrees. Dry farming is common.

Answer 13

Fermentation only reaches a few degrees before it is fortified to 18% abv. The wine is aged in various sized oak casks in very hot conditions. Evaporation, heat and oxidation are all important in the final style and quality of the wine. Blending (sometimes the use of a solera system) are important to maintain the style and consistency of a producer's style.

Answer 14

A voluntary system is operated by the Muscat of Rutherglen Network Four Levels of category: Rutherglen Muscat, Classic Rutherglen Muscat, Grand Rutherglen Muscat and Rare Rutherglen Muscat

Answer 15

Old name for the very special sort of stickie made in australia from Brown muscat grapes. For more, see topaque.

Answer 16

They taste something like a cross between madeira and traditional dark málaga, and are two of australia’s great gifts to the world made from, respectively, muscadelle, traditionally known as Tokay in Australia, and a very dark-skinned strain of muscat blanc à petits grains, called here Brown Muscat. Grapes are semi-raisined on the vine, partially fermented, and then fortified with grape spirit before being subjected to an unusual wood-ageing programme that resembles a cross between a sherry solera and, under many a hot tin roof, a Madeira estufagem. The results can be uncannily fine quality, are bottled when they are ready to drink, and do not change with bottle age.

Answer 17

- Since 1850's. - Lindsay Brown had selected his 'Gooramadda Run' in the late 1840's and is the father of the local wine industry when he planted his four acre v/yard to the west of Rutherglen some ten years later Brown has been credited with a quote that has endured through the years - 'Dig gentleman dig, but no deeper than six inches, for there is more gold to be won from the top six inches than from all of the depths below' - More plantings followed and the wines of the nth-est soon found strong favour throughout the colony. - Wineries around then and now include: Gehrigs - 1859, Chambers Rosewood - 1859, Morris- 1859, Mount Prior - 1860, St Leonards - 1860, All Saints Estate - 1864, Campbells - 1870, Stanton & Killeen - 1875. - 1880s more expansion, 3000 acres of vines spread across 50 recognised vineyards (and considerably more smaller farm orchards), - Rutherglen was producing approximately a third of all wine in Australia. - Won prizes internationally in the London, Paris and Bordeaux exhibitions, and exports back to the 'Mother Country' flowed. - The largest holdings of the time included George Francis Morris whose Fairfield property grew to 650 acres under vine, the Graham brothers of Netherby (350 acres), Alex Caughey at Mount Prior (350 acres) and George Smith of All Saints Estate (250 acres).

Answer 18

- Prospers into the 1890's, Phylloxera comes, near Geelong in the late 1870's. - In May 1899 the news that many had been dreading swept the district; phylloxera had been detected in Rutherglen. It was particularly devastating coming at a time when many had invested heavily in vines to take advantage of Rutherglen's strong and still growing reputation.

Answer 19

- Many hardy souls remained committed to the the wine industry, and indeed some vineyards were spared from pyhlloxera for a number of years. Those planted on sandy soils seemed to be less susceptible - By 1905 phylloxera had claimed all but a few isolated pockets Research had centred on developing phylloxera resistant vines by taking rootstock from a genus of north american vine that had proven resistant to phylloxera and grafting on the desired cuttings suitable for table wine production from the vitis vinifera genus. A trial vineyard was planted at Wahgunyah and after some early problems in establishing the vineyard it was deemed successful, and they soon had a vineyard of some fourteen acres in production. The program would be boosted further by the appointment of Francois de Castella as the Victorian State Viticulturist in 1907. A highly skilled botanist who had studied in Switzerland, de Castella travelled to Europe to collect suitable cuttings for the Australian climate that would be developed at the Rutherglen college. This included the introduction of Durif in 1908. Needless to say the regions winemakers remain eternally grateful to this day. Over the next thirty years more than 5 million resistant rootlings were supplied by the Rutherglen Viticulture College to re-establish vineyards in Rutherglen and further afield.

Answer 20

As resistant vineyards came to bear Rutherglen was well positioned to regain marketshare, and some did so particularly well. The Burgoyne Brothers operation at Mount Ophir grew to a mammoth 700 acres with much of the production bound for England. Graham's large Netherby enterprise grew to 700 acres also. The scale of the regions vineyards waxed and waned for some thirty years in line with market demands. The lack of colonial trade barriers meant that South Australian wine found its way on to Melbourne shelves. Later import duties would affect the demand for Australian wines in Britain, and consumer tastes would change as they are perpetually bound to do. It became clear that the Golden Age for Rutherglen producers was over.

Answer 21

- Thankfully a number of family wineries stuck to their task through the 1950's and 60's in what must have been trying times. Majority of wineries in Rutherglen were mixed farming businesses This served in spreading the risk - There remained a solid domestic market for Rutherglen fortifieds on account of their quality and carriage loads of hogsheads, gallon jars and flagons found their way to Melbourne by rail. - Mid sixties it is said that there were 21 registered vineyards in Victoria and 13 of those were in Rutherglen, which highlights just how far into disrepair the industry had fallen. - In 1967 the Rutheglen wineries bonded together to hold the very first Rutherglen Wine Festival. The festival ws an outstanding success, evidently the $50 stake was quite safe, and the balance of the proceeds were used to erect the steel top of the giant wine bottle which still dominates the Rutherglen landscape today. To that point in time the wine bottle has been a rather inocuous looking water tank. - The 2nd change for Rutherglen: The influx of migrants to the country through the late fifties and early sixties slowly but steadily increased the demand for wines, particularly table wines. In the 1860's Rutherglen's burgeoning reputation was built on 'burgundy', 'claret' and other table wine styles, and some 100 years later it seemed the industry had finally come full circle. This period laid the foundation for the modern Rutherglen wine industry - boutique, family owned, quality driven winemakers producing a full range of sparkling and still red and white tables wines, and still making the world's finest fortifieds.

Answer 22

- Same heat degree days summation as the Clare Valley and same sunshine hours as the Gold Coast in Queensland. - Cool nights, warm days and a normally long dry autumn - Rutherglen reds such as Shiraz and Durif develop a rich core of fruit, and firm natural tannin structure which combine to make them great cellaring wines, and enable them to be made into powerful vintage, and complex tawny ports.

Answer 23

a band of loam on the lower slopes of the gentle local hills. This snakes its way around the centre and extends to the east, west and south of the township of Rutherglen. The other entirely different soil type is “‘Black Dog fine sandy loam” which is found around the wineries closer to the Murray River. The predominant subsoil is classed as medium heavy clay, that which is associated with gold mining.

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