So many cheap sweeties

Chris Shanahna

Ross and Judy brown visited Canberra in March to launch the new vintage Brown Brothers Patricia range – the company's flagship wines. They're wonderful and good value. But the visit highlighted the sheer depth of the Brown Brothers' offering. Much of it is driven, beneath the radar of wine columns, by a range of high volume sweet whites and reds.

The company's innovative approach is probably best seen from the cellar door, visited by about 90,000 people a year. Here, Brown Brothers offers an ever-changing mend of new

wines, gauging drinkers' reaction, before moving to larger production of the successful products. The diversity offered at the cellar door can be glimpsed from the comfort of your computer screen on the cellar price list, available at www.brownbrothers.com.au

The list of non-traditional styles includes prosecco, zibbibo, pinot grigio, albarino (temporarily withdrawn, and potentially to be renamed, following CSIRO DNA testing of Australia's stocks of this variety), viognier, chenin blanc, vermentino, moscato, crouchen-riesling blend, tarrango, dolcetto-syrah blend, cienna, sangiovese, nero d'Avola, barbera, tempranillo, tempranillo-graciano blend and nebbiolo.

Ross Brown attributes part of Brown's success to high-quality sweet and fruity wines, both red and white. Two of Brown's sweeties - the red dolcetto and syrah, and white moscato – ranked ninth and fourth  respectively in an AC Nielsen listing of Australia's top-selling wines (by value) in the year to March.

Now, you might wonder what link there is between the small-volume, $57, top-end Patricia wines and the modestly priced, big-volume sweeties. The simple answer is that Brown Brothers takes all of the styles it makes seriously.

And who drinks the sweeties? Brown says there's no simple profile. The wines appeal across ages, sexes and social status. And if there's a trend for people to discover sweet, fruity wines then progress to dry versions, it's not universal. Many people stick to sweet wines for life. Here is a glimpse of Brown Brothers' popular sweeties, and reviews of two exciting, dry pinot grigios and the flagship Patricia range.

Brown Brothers Victoria Crouchen Riesling

2008 (10.5 per cent alcohol) $13.40

This is like a slightly fat riesling - plumped out by the crouchen, a variety once known in Australia as Clare riesling but originally from the Landes region, south-western France. It's a crisp, easy-drinking style but not made for cellaring.

Note the modest alcohol content.

South Eastern Australia Moscato 2008

(5.5 per cent) $15.40

This is one of the early Australian takes on the spritzy styles made originally in Asti, Piedmont. Made from the muscat of Alexandria grape, perhaps the most ancient of all cultivated varieties, it is pale, spritzy and  musky/grapey - sweet but invigorating.

Zibibbo (6.5 per cent) $15.40

In this sparkling version of moscato, Brown Brothers uses the southern Italian name for the muscat grape, zibibbo. The bubbles make it even brisker than the still version, but mute the fruity, musk aroma and flavour.

Victoria Dolcetto and Syrah 2008 (11 per cent) $15.40

Syrah equals shiraz and therefore needs no introduction. But dolcetto - meaning little sweet one - is less well known. Competing theories place it as a native of Dogliani, a Piedmontese village, or of France, having arrived in Monferrato, Piedmont, in the 11th century. Whichever is true, dolcetto is now a thoroughly Piedniontese grape, making stunningly purple, fruity and generally soft, dry early drinking wines - a real contrast to the mouth-puckering wines made from nebbiolo, Piedmont's most acclaimed red variety. Brown's blend is a vibrant crimson colour, spritzy and with pleasant mulberry-like fruit flavour, a grapey sweetness and lick of tannin in the finish.

Victoria Cienna 2008

(5 per cent) $13.90

CSIRO bred cienna from cabernet sauvignon and the Spanish sumoll variety in 1972, but it wasn't bred until 2000. Brown's version is brilliantly coloured and light and fresh on the palate, the fruit flavour having traces of cabernet's leafiness.

Brown Brothers Victoria Pinot Grigio 2008 $18.99

Browns produces two classy dry pinot grigios - the standard blend, $18.99, and a limited release version, from a single block on the cold, 800m-high Whitlands vineyard. The standard blend (sourced from Whitlands and the 450m-high Banksdale vineyard) is a rich, soft dry white with crystal-clear varietal flavour - it's the real thing. The limited-release wine, scheduled for release next year, offers more intense flavours and a tighter structure, with a lovely core of delicious fruit.

Brown Brothers Patricia Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 $56

Brown Brothers Patricia Shiraz 2005 $56

These are modestly priced for flagship wines of the calibre. The shiraz, a blend from Avoca, Heathcote and the King Valley, shows cool-climate peppery/spicy varietal aromas and flavours and a solid, deep palate with quite an impact from the American oak. The cabernet comes from Western Victoria, the Dookie Hills and the King Valley. It's strongly varietal with deep fruitiness and leafy hints on the nose and a powerful but finely structured and assertively tannic palate - it's a classic cellaring style and ought to drink well between 10 and 20 years' age.

Brown Brothers Patricia Pinot Noir Chardonnay Pinot Meunier 2004 $39.90

Brown Brothers Patricia Noble Riesling 2006 375m1 $35

These easily rank with the best Australian examples of the styles. The bubbly comes from the cold Whitlands vineyard on a plateau above the southern end of Victoria's King Valley. It's cold enough to produce the intense but delicate flavours essential for top-end bubbly. It's juicy and fresh but delicate, with a special textural richness and roundness probably attributable to the pinot meunier. The amazing, luscious noble riesling offers the zesty, varietal lime character of riesling and the exotic marmalade notes of botrytis and a little bottle age. It's from vines first noted for botrytis in the 1930s.

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