Chambers Grand Special Muscadelle 375ml

STAFF PICKS 2022 - EFFIE ROSS

Stepping into the cellars at Chambers is something akin to stepping into another dimension. The barrel room is a labyrinth of towering casks with age ranges from the most recent vintage through to old elixirs that reliably pre-date all of us. The sense of timelessness at Chambers is palpable. For me, the Grand Muscadelle is the best possible introduction to the style. Burnt butterscotch, orange peel, aromatic spices. The length and persistence are the hallmark of this wine, along with an alluring tension: the wine is simultaneously as unctuous, rich, and deeply caramel as it is ethereal - vibrant and lifted by lightness.

This is an incredibly complex wine; there's a sense as though layers of scents and flavours hidden in time are flecked throughout, lying dormant, seeping through the staves of old wood. Wines like this speak of Rutherglen, but they also speak of myriad places, things and old memories. A clove orange on the kitchen counter, displaced by tins of cocoa unloaded from the shopping basket, soaking up crumbs and noise of hundreds of honey sandwiches made and eaten in the long days of endless summer holidays. The oldest barrels for the Grand Muscadelle date back to the late 19th century. How astounding to think of these old barrels full of spirited, aromatic Tokay sitting quietly while we live out our lives. Equally astounding is how little thought many emerging wine professionals and oenophiles give to Rutherglen fortified's. I highly encourage you to give this wine a spot on your Christmas table this year. EFFIE