All Saints Rare Muscadelle Half Bottle 375ml, Rutherglen

Nowhere in wine is the art of the blender more tested, more nerve-wracking year in, year out, and more unsung than in fortified production. With an average age of 30-plus years, the senses soar with a wine like this. Deep, amber-dark olive hues. Intensity is the by-word but so too a luscious, sweet elegance. Pause over the fragrant scent before diving into a world of malt, dark chocolate–covered orange peel, toffee, nutty nougat, roasted nuts and raisin-rich fruitcake all perfectly in tune with a spirit-led freshness. A special wine. 375ml.

98 points Special Value Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion

All Saints Estate has been a Rutherglen landmark since Scottish brothers George and John Sutherland Smith established the property at Wahgunyah in 1864. Behind the famous castle façade lies the real treasure: generations of fortified wine resting in old barrels. Rare Muscadelle comes from the precious old stocks at the very top of the estate’s fortified collection, representing the extraordinary concentration and complexity that only decades of patient maturation can create.

Historically known in Rutherglen as Tokay, Muscadelle develops a character quite unlike Muscat. Grapes are harvested at intense ripeness, fortified and then matured oxidatively in seasoned oak, where years of evaporation concentrate both sweetness and flavour. The Rare classification is the pinnacle, reserved for wines of exceptional age and richness. These are tiny volume blends assembled from barrels that are effectively pieces of Rutherglen history.

Deep mahogany with amber and olive gold around the rim, the bouquet is extraordinary. Burnt caramel, dried apricot and fig roll into butterscotch, maple syrup and orange marmalade, followed by roasted walnut, black tea, espresso and warm baking spice. The palate is immensely concentrated and almost syrupy in texture, yet a seam of acidity prevents the sweetness becoming overwhelming. Toffee, treacle and dried fruit give way to tea leaf, coffee and savoury nuts before an extraordinarily persistent finish of caramel, orange peel and spice.

Crème brûlée would be magnificent, as would tarte Tatin, sticky date pudding, walnut and coffee cake or a seriously salty blue cheese with dried apricots. Our pick is the tarte Tatin. Caramelised apple and buttery pastry meeting Rare Muscadelle’s toffee, orange and nutty complexity is dessert behaving very badly indeed.

Cellaring: Glorious now and capable of holding for decades unopened. Once opened, store somewhere cool and dark and enjoy over many months.