Page 385 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

INTRODUCING VIC T ORIA  383

How Victoria’s famous Muscats
and Tokays are made
Brown Muscat and Muscadelle grapes are picked late, when they are
at their sweetest, to produce fine Muscats and Tokays respectively.
Once the grapes have been crushed, the resulting juice is often
fermented in traditional open concrete tanks which have been in
use for generations. The wine is then fortified with top-quality grape
spirit, which will give it an ultimate alcohol strength of around 18.5
per cent. The solera system, in which young vintages are blended
with older ones, gives more depth to the wines and also ensures
that they retain a consistent quality. Some wineries, such as Morris,
use a base wine combined with vintages going back more than a
A sunbathed vineyard in Victoria, famed century. The flavour of wine in the oldest barrel is so intense that one
for its wine production teaspoon can add a new dimension to 200 l (45 gal) of base wine.
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ay
Murray Rive ve v r
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Echuca •
Shepparton Albury K
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BENDIGO Benalla Kiewa River
BENDIGO
Omeo
Healesville

v
ve
Mitchell River
Bairnsdale
MELBOURNE
Goulburn River
Geelong
Geelong
Sale
Korumburra
Korumburra
Brown Brothers
This producer not
only makes fine wines, they also have an
acclaimed restaurant and wine matching centre.

Key
Murray Darling Rutherglen
Swan Hill Glenrowan
Grampians Beechworth
Pyrenees Central Victorian
Mountain Country
Bendigo
King Valley
Heathcote
Alpine Valleys
Macedon Ranges
Yarra Valley
Sunbury
The vines at the front of Tahbilk Geelong Mornington Peninsula
Wines were planted in 1860. Goulburn Valley Gippsland
The wines produced from them Upper Goulburn
are rare and expensive. Henty