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EXPLAINING THE RUTHERGLEN MUSCAT
The Muscat is aged as single vintages and individual batches within each vintage before blending in older casks. The Rutherglen Muscat is blended on the bench prior to assembly.
The Chambers Muscat style is commonly referred to as more of a ferment style. Where we endeavour regardless of initial sugar concentration to have a final Baumé using hydrometry around 12 as a young wine. Other houses do not necessarily take this approach rather limit fermentation to a maximum of 3% alc/vol prior to fortification thus resulting in a range of sugar levels in their final wines. Both approaches give blending options.
What does not really vary between houses/winery is the choice of fortifying alcohol. We all are aiming to use neutral grape spirit which does not infer heat to the palate and doesn't mask the varietal characters of the Muscat.
Currently we are using wines up to 10 years of age all the way down to 1 year old. The older material provides the depth and complexity to the wine while the younger material provides the aromatic vibrancy to the wine. When the blend is assembled it is then placed back into the cask and bottled on demand. For the last 8 years we have been making the blends in 10000 Litre lots and tend to blend these twice a year. - Stephen Chambers
Chambers Rosewood, Rutherglen Muscat NV, Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia - Sommelier Wine Awards 2025
'Medicinal and reminiscent of an amaro, with a Fernet-like chocolate sweetness to it - very good quality for its price.'
Sam Weatherill, etch. by Steven Edwards.
'Aromas of caramelised mandarin peel with a brown sugar glaze, leading to notes of toffee, sweet rose petals and dried figs on the palate.'
Emma Denney, Claridges.
International Trade UK Liberty Wines
‘The opening act to an imperious suite of fortifieds. A range that serves an apogee of lustrous depth, alluring complexity and thrilling length across the board. This, a little lighter. Younger. Easier going. Yet this fails to communicate just how gorgeous the wine is. Aromas of date, ginger, rosewater, grape spice, cardamon and mulled quince. The freshness is sprightly, negating any sense of cloying sweetness while promoting a long, lingering finish. I'd slurp this with a chill. Drink or hold indefinitely.’ JAMES SUCKLING Ned Goodwin MW 2023
“Amber in appearance, the nose gives aromas of orange confit, Earl Grey tea and mushroom consommé. The palate is medium-bodied with notes of apple pie, sandalwood and molasses. Classic and delicious. Drink or hold. Screw cap” JAMES SUCKLING - October 17 2024.
What a fine introduction to Rutherglen muscat, providing all the fundamentals of the style: the high aromatics with a honeyed, sweet complexity. Turkish Delight, rose oil, dried fruits and fruitcake all rolled into a smooth, nutty, honeyed whole, freshened expertly by a clean, neutral spirit. Staggeringly good value. 750ml. Jeni Port - Halliday Wine Companion 2026
"This is pale russet red. The fortification spirit that is added after the wine has spent a mere 24 hours on skins before it is pressed introduces an edge to the Christmas cake, raisin, orange peel and spice that define new-born Rutherglen muscat. Truly great value." James Halliday
"There are very few wines in the world that are truly iconic, fairly priced and score as highly as this one does in my notes… If there was a magic wand I would have a go at that, too. Suffice to say that Chambers Rosewood makes legendary Muscat and the toffee, rosewater and fig notes in this wine are all-encompassing and I hope that some of the molecules never leave my body because it is clearly a magical elixir. I urge everyone who reads this to buy a bottle." Matthew Jukes
SOMMELIER WINE AWARDS
'Compelling, with intense caramel and tea leaves.'
Joshua Castle, Noble Rot.
'A well integrated and elegant wine.'
Nicolo Cereghini, Hélène Darroze at The Connaught.
'Very complex, with notes of fig and prune. Good acidity, and a good price too.'
Sabrina Manolio, consultant sommelier.
'Chocolate and Christmas spice – perfect for winter, and great by the glass.'
Stephanie Robertson, Restaurant Associates.
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Alcohol: 17.6 %
Glucose & Fructose: 260.3 g/L
pH: 4.00
Titratable Acidity: 4.2g/L -
Muscat is made from the variety muscat à petits grains, which can range in colour from a green (white) grape through to black. The colour favoured for muscat production in Rutherglen is reddish-brown and is often referred to as muscat à petits grains rouge.
Prior to 2015 the fruit was hand harvested now it is machine harvested. Fruit is harvested at higher baumés (16º Bé plus preferred). The grapes are then de-stemmed with the resultant must and recovered raisons are placed into tank. Depending upon the disease status the must is either inoculated with yeast or a wild ferment allowed. Only a partial fermentation of the juice is undertaken (usually 2º to 3º Bé depending upon initial fruit ripeness). The fermentation will add colour and complexity to the wine. We tend to find that there is an increase in baumé in the initial 24 to 72 hours due liberation of sugar from raison rehydration, thus enabling a longer fermentation.
Once desired amount of sugar has been fermented, the must is placed into the press for juice extraction. The fermenting juice obtained is fortified with neutral grape spirit referred to as SVR(~ 96% alcohol; ) to 16% alcohol to arrest the fermentation. The neutral spirit is chosen to enable the fruit expression of the variety. The resultant wine is then placed into stainless steel tank for settling, then racked prior to cross flow filtration. The filtered wine is then adjusted to 18% alcohol before transfer to old, large casks for aging. Cask volume varies from 900 to 5000 litres.
Individual vintages and vineyards are kept as separate wines until blending.
The Rutherglen Muscat is the entry level to our Muscat Range. The wine is youthful and expressive of the primary characters of the variety. To produce the Rutherglen Muscat, we first conduct a series of bench trials utilising the single vintage wines before settling on a final blend. The selected wines are then blended, filtered then placed back into cask until required for bottling and sale.
The wine is bottled on demand to ensure the best product possible.
Tawny in colour. Aromatics of rose petals, dried apricots, and raisons, these characters are evident on the palate resulting in a youthful and vibrant wine showing freshness of fruit and lusciousness. This is keeping in the Rutherglen Muscat Style of youthful and fresh style.
We recommend serving this wine with slightly chilled in the warmer months to reduce the alcohol heat.
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James Suckling
2023 Rating: 93‘The opening act to an imperious suite of fortifieds. A range that serves an apogee of lustrous depth, alluring complexity and thrilling length across the board. This, a little lighter. Younger. Easier going. Yet this fails to communicate just how gorgeous the wine is. Aromas of date, ginger, rosewater, grape spice, cardamon and mulled quince. The freshness is sprightly, negating any sense of cloying sweetness while promoting a long, lingering finish. I'd slurp this with a chill. Drink or hold indefinitely.’ JAMES SUCKLING Ned Goodwin MW 2023
Halliday Wine Companion
93 Points Halliday ratingWhat a fine introduction to Rutherglen muscat, providing all the fundamentals of the style: the high aromatics with a honeyed, sweet complexity. Turkish Delight, rose oil, dried fruits and fruitcake all rolled into a smooth, nutty, honeyed whole, freshened expertly by a clean, neutral spirit. Staggeringly good value. 750ml. Jeni Port Halliday Wine Companion 2026
The youngest, the lightest in colour and the bounciest. Fairly jumps out of the glass in grapey freshness. A roll call of youthful vitality and flavours of nougat, orange peel, raisin and Turkish delight. Also brings a degree of complexity, which is something you don't always see at this level or price point. 750ml.
Jeni Port - Published 13 August 2021
Matthew Jukes
"There are very few wines in the world that are truly iconic, fairly priced and score as highly as this one does in my notes… If there was a magic wand I would have a go at that, too. Suffice to say that Chambers Rosewood makes legendary Muscat and the toffee, rosewater and fig notes in this wine are all-encompassing and I hope that some of the molecules never leave my body because it is clearly a magical elixir. I urge everyone who reads this to buy a bottle." -
Sommelier Wine Awards - 2025 (UK) SILVER - Fortified Producer of the Year
Sommelier Wine Awards - 2024 (UK) GOLD
James Suckling - 2023 Rating: 95 2024 Rating: 92
Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Wines - 2021 # 8 out of 100 Rating: 93
Texsom International Wine Awards - 2022 (US) Platinum 2021 US) PLATINUM
Decanter World Wine Awards - 2021 (UK) Rating: 93
Halliday Wine Companion - 2026 Rating: 93 2025 Rating: 93 - 2024 Rating: 92 -2022 Rating: 92 - 2021 Rating: 92
