Langton’s Selections Brown Brothers Patricia Shiraz, Brown Brothers Patricia Cabernet Sauvignon Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard located in the lower reaches of the King Valley, North East Victoria, was established in 1885 by John Francis and his father George Harry Brown. Despite the difficulties of a severe recession during the 1890s, the Brown Brothers business survived making and selling mostly fortified wines like Muscats and Ports. By 1909 Brown Brothers owned 40 acres of vineyard comprising Shiraz, Malbec, Pedro Ximenez, Brown Muscat, Riesling, Tokay and Golden Chasselas. By 1916 the dreaded Phylloxera arrived devastating many vineyards in the region. However John Francis took Francois de Castella’s sage advice and planted another 35 acres of vineyard on American Rootstock. Brown Brothers is one of the Australian Wine Industry’s great success stories making wines of great value and interest. It was an early proponent of varietal labelling, pioneered new grape varieties in Australia such as Graciano, Barbera, Cienna, Vermentino and (Australian cross Touriga x Sultana) Tarrango. Its marketing of wine during the 1980s was well ahead of its time. Brown Brothers promoted regional difference, wine & food matching and tourism with both flair and imagination. Its Epicurean Centre (a wine and food tasting emporium) is very much central to this theme. Today it owns vineyards all over Northern and Central Victoria including Milawa, Heathcote, Mystic Park (Murray Valley) and cool climate sites at Banksdale and Whitlands. It makes a mind boggling portfolio of wines comprising almost every variety you can think of. The flagship wines are labelled under the Patricia moniker and named after a family matriarch. The Patricia Shiraz, a multi district Heathcote/King Valley blend, is aged in American oak. The Patricia Cabernet Sauvignon is derived from cool climate sites around the King Valley and Western Victoria. The wine is matured in French oak for 18 months. From a market perspective Brown Brothers has featured consistently at Langton’s since the beginning. However it is very much locked into a commercial groove appealing to a broad range of wine drinkers rather than collectors. Inevitably many of the wines are early drinking styles. However the wines are generally excellent. Some of the old vintages going back to the 1960s are very interesting and relatively inexpensive, particularly the old Shiraz Mondeuse blends. Andrew Caillard MW, Langton's