Brown Brothers – Victoria, Cienna – 2024

Description   PRODUCER: Brown Brothers is one of Australia’s leading family-owned wine companies. Based in Milawa, Victoria, for over 130 years, the Brown family’s sense of adventure and innovation has led them to where they are now: creating exciting new wines, pushing boundaries, and developing vineyards in some of the best regions in Australia. In 1989, Brown Brothers celebrated 100 years of winemaking and established the ‘Kindergarten Winery’, a mini-sized winery where experimental and innovative wines can be made on a smaller scale. In 2015, fourth-generation Katherine Brown joined the winemaking team and became the first female winemaker in the family, working alongside award-winning winemaker Cate Looney. For a company named Brown Brothers, today they are led by a team of eight women and two men. Their pioneering range of wines includes less known varieties such as Cienna and Tarrango and an alcohol-free duo named ‘Zero’. They are members of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, and all their wines are precisely crafted, with care, attention and consistency. VINEYARD: This wine is made from Cienna grapes grown at the Mystic Park vineyard in the Murray Valley of Northwest Victoria. Cienna is a relatively new variety which has been produced almost exclusively in the hot, dry vineyards of southern Australia. It is a crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon with Sumoll, a lesser-known red variety from Catalonia in northern Spain. The Cienna variety was created by the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), specifically to combine the organoleptic qualities of Cabernet Sauvignon with the drought-resistance properties of Sumoll. The Murray Valley is a hot, arid region with a continental climate, in which Cienna thrives. The vineyard is cultivated sustainably. WINEMAKING: The Cienna grapes were gently crushed into temperature-controlled stainless steel fermenters, where fermentation took place with selected yeasts. The wine was pressed into tanks and chilled once the desired alcohol level was reached. This was made without any oak influence to retain the vibrancy of the Cienna grape and the purity of fruit flavour. TASTING NOTE: A light-bodied red wine with vibrant aromas of summer berries and a hint of spice. With fruit sweetness on the palate, it is rich and juicy with a refreshing finish. Enjoy chilled. GRAPES: Cienna 100%.