Campbells Rutherglen Topaque NV (375mL)

Located at North-east Victoria state, Rutherglen has been making wines since mid-19th century. It’s best known for its fortified sweet wines made from dark skinned Muscat  and Muscadelle.

Topaque style is the name of the dessert wine made from Muscadelle. These wines were formerly labelled as Tokays, due to a mis-identification of the variety and belief the variety came from Hungary’s Tokaj region. In 2007 Rutherglen producers began to rename the style to the trademarked ‘Topaque’, to meet the terms of the Australia-European Community Agreement on Trade in Wine, which came into force in 2010.

Campbells Rutherglen wines had been in business since 1870. It was founded by Scottish migrant John Campbell, who landed on Australian shore in 1857, and bought the land to plant vines in 1868. The business is now owned and ran by fifth generation Campbell family members.

The grapes are left until late in the season to achieve optimum ripeness, ensuring maximum fruit flavor and a high degree of natural
sweetness. Selected parcels of the finished wine are then added to the Rutherglen Topaque solera which is a blend of a number of vintages
from many past years. Wine can only be withdrawn from this solera when it matches exactly with the previous withdrawal thus ensuring the quality and consistency of style.

Despite this is non-vintage product, according to the wine law, the dessert wine that labels to be conventional Rutherglen has an average age between 3 and 5 year. And has a sugar level between 180g and 220g per Liter. (For this particular wine produced by Campbells, it’s 190g/L.) The product is popular in Australia’s warm summer, because it is a heavenly match with honeycomb ice cream, fruit based desserts, soft cheeses, chilled as an aperitif or as an after dinner drink with coffee.