​Gorgeous Gordo – the second-rate strikes back

Ross Brown carefully pulls the cork from a 37-year-old bottle of wine. 

‘This', he says, ‘is one of the Australian wine industry’s best kept secrets.’ 

Brown Brothers’ executive director hasn’t brought one of the family company’s poshest wines to lunch. It’s no savoury old ‘claret’, or precious rare fortified. No. It’s a sweet cheapie. A mass-produced supermarket wine that you’d think would be long past its best. What’s more, it’s made from Muscat of Alexandria, also known as Muscat Gordo Blanco, considered a second-rate grape variety.

The old bottle in Ross Brown’s hand is the 1981 Brown Brothers Spätlese Lexia...