Reds, whites….and Browns

Brown Brothers has history, charm, non-pretentiousness as well as treat food and wine.

I'm sitting in the middle of a chook yard. Well, not exactly, but Katherine Brown assures me that this is the exact spot, behind the historic family home, where her grandmothers chocks once lived.

Family pride blends with self-deprecating Aussie humour as Ms Brown, a the fourth generation member of the Victorian wine dynasty, informs me that the Epicurean Centre - the restaurant at her family's Milawa winery - is built on Patricia Brown's old chook yard.

A visit to Brown Brothers in Milawa is a journey into four generations of family history amidst the charm of an established country property. Sweeping lawns, old-world flower gardens and spreading shade trees greet visitors to Brown Brothers' cellar door and the rustic Epicurean Centre with its expansive garden

views has a comfortable country style that belies its exquisite fine dining, in which each dish is served with a carefully matched wine.

The restaurant sources many of its ingredients from the surrounding gourmet

region and the menu changes seasonally with the available produce. During my

winter visit I savoured a mix of slow-braised mushrooms served with truffled papadelle and a 2005 Chardonnay, followed by a smoothly rich, sticky date pudding and date ice-cream, paired with Very Old Tokay.

A warm, no-nonsense attitude native to the Australian bush pervades the Milawa winery, a refreshing break from the pretension that sometimes accompanies the wine industry. It all serves to affirm CEO Ross Brown's assertion that the Brown Brothers cellar door philosophy is about the experience, not selling. The winery's fortuitous location draws visitors year-round, even during the traditionally slow winter months. Originally situated on the main Sydney-Melbourne route, Brown

Brothers' Milawa vineyard has escaped the fate of many businesses located on rerouted highways because it is now perfectly positioned on the main road to the Victorian ski fields instead.

Location is also a factor in the wine selection available at Milawa. Many are driven by the less common grape varieties grown by nearby King Valley producers. Cellar door wines include limited releases of new varietals, experimental batches and specially aged wines.

Many of these are products of the Kindergarten, Brown Brothers' research and

development division. The Kindergarten is a mini-winery within the larger winery, so named because it is designed to nurture small things with great potential.

Established by John Graham Brown in 1989 as part of the winery's centenary celebrations, the Kindergarten attracts guest winemakers from around the world and provides an environment in which exploration and experimentation are encouraged, buffered from the everyday pressures of harvest and running a winery.

The constantly changing group of experts trials small batches of varietals and explores new winemaking processes, feeding the results back into the larger company. Among the wines that have achieved success through this process are Barbera, Dolcetto, Moscato and Tarrango.

The experimental focus supplies cellar door customers with wines they could not

otherwise access, while at the same time providing Brown Brothers with priceless

market research.

Customer feedback is taken into account when determining directions for new wine development. Responding to the surprising number of non-wine drinkers who come through their doors, Brown Brothers has, for example, developed a selection of sweeter wines with a lower alcohol content. These have become some of their strongest cellar door sellers.

"At the cellar door we listen to the customer and we end up having a range of wines that is more customer focused and perhaps not as traditional as other winemakers," Ross Brown says.

"Fifty to sixty per cent of wines we try at the cellar door die, but we've never had a dud with those that move on from the cellar door to market, because the customers are voting with their pockets."

At a glance:

Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard

239 Milawa-Bobinawarrah Road, Milawa

1800 032 248

www.brownbrothers.com.au