Charles Melton is the only Australian producer of a vin-santo styled dessert wine, he calls it, Sotto di Ferro. Made from Pedro Ximenez and Muscadelle grapes that are hung and dried in bunches under the rafter of old iron sheds on the Melton property. From the trickle of juice gathered from the shrivelled grapes comes this wine showing rich, luscious dried apricot and nut characters. This is not a wine to rush. Take your time and allow it to impress you with its sweet complexity that develops in the glass.
For those interested in the winemaking process this from the winery: Pedro Ximenez and Muscadelle bunches are carefully hand-picked and placed in small crates before being taken to our ‘hanging shed’. There, an experienced team tie six to eight bunches of grapes onto strings which are then suspended from the rafters for up to eight weeks. The grapes dehydrate naturally as they are exposed to air, and when the team at Charles Melton Wines deems the grapes to be concentrated enough, the bunches will be pressed in a basket press. The juice is then yeasted and fermented in small 60-litre old oak casks known as ‘Caratelli’ for 18 months. After fermentation completes, the wine will remain in barrel for a further four years before it is bottled.