MELBOURNE | Brown Brothers are one of the most recognisable names in wine in Australia. The family-owned and run winery has been operating since 1889, and is today managed by the fourth generation of the Brown family. I recently visited the winery, cellar door, and restaurant, on behalf of Brown Brothers. During my visit, I met members of the Brown family, and staff who have worked with the family for over a decade. I learned a lot about Brown Brothers that I was unaware of, and had many of my misconceptions dispelled.
Writing about food and drink, one always has to check their privilege. I know that I’m lucky to be able to eat and drink the way that I do on a regular basis, when many do not have the means to do so. It’s particularly time, given the cost of living pressures and economic uncertainty being faced by Australians.
Brown Brothers make wines for everyone, and have something for all budgets. Their cheapest wines are affordable and widely available with their sweet Moscato being extremely popular. This has led to many, myself included, forming a reputation of Brown Brothers being a winery that produces cheap, average-tasting wines. When I first saw the invite come through, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go. Indeed several people, when I told them I had been invited up to Brown Brothers, were on the same wavelength.
It’s ignorant, an opinion formed from some memories long ago, and some stereotypes sprinkled in for good measure. It’s not the way that I approach what I do with The City Lane. I took a step back and realised that I’d never really given Brown Brothers a chance, and that I didn’t actually know much about them at all. I wanted to know more, and to form an opinion on their wines based on something tangible and recent.
I had a great chat with Emma Brown, Chief Marketing Executive and fourth generation Brown family member about the winery, and her experiences growing up with this legacy. The first thing that struck me is just how community focused Brown Brothers is. Yes, they’re a very large operation, but they’re still family owned and operated, and still based where it all started.
The average tenure of employees is over 10 years, and during lockdown they kept every single one of their staff on the books, encouraging them learn new skills, work on side/passion projects, and deliver wines and fresh-cooked meals to locals. Despite their size, there’s still that personal touch. Have a wine tasting led by long-term employee Steve, and you’ll hear all sorts of stories and anecdotes from over the years.
As mentioned earlier, Brown Brothers have an extensive selection of wines, not just in terms of price point, but in the breadth of wines too. As well as the Milawa vineyard, Brown Brothers have a few other vineyards, which allows them to grow grapes suited to a variety of climates. I did the premium tasting, which usually costs $20.00 per person. It gets you 8-10 wines of your choice, from the entire range that Brown Brothers has to offer. This includes their rare, limited, and family cellared wines. Many of which you can only get at the cellar door.
The Patricia range, named for Patricia Brown, is where you’ll find the best stuff that Brown Brothers produces. The crisp, creamy Patricia Chardonnay 2021, with notes of apple and stone fruit, is a brilliant drop. For a sweet wine, the sticky, dense, balanced Patricia Noble Riesling 2019 is hard to go past. It was awarded 95 points and ‘Sweet Wine of the Year’ in the 2023 Halliday Wine Companion.
If it’s experimental, small batch wines that you’re looking for, the Winemaker’s Series is what you want. I’m a huge fan of the Winemaker’s Series Tempranillo & Graciano 2021, a medium-bodied Rioja blend with spice and dark berry notes. I’m also partial to the Explorer Series Albariño 2021. The grape is native to Northwest Portugal and Galicia and not often seen in Australia. The wine is a bright, crisp white with citrus and nectarine notes.
One of the most unique varietals you can try at Brown Brothers is the Tarrango. It’s a grape that was developed by Brown Brothers in conjunction with the CSIRO in 1965. A cross between crossing the Portuguese red grape variety Touriga and white grape Sultana, it was developed with withstand Australia’s unique growing conditions. The result is a light bodied red, that’s been tweaked over the years with advances in technology and knowledge. In fact, Brown Brothers continue to work closely with the CSIRO in relation to wine research. They actually have the oldest and most complete records of the impact of weather and climate change on wine growing in Australia, and do a lot of research around this topic.
Brown Brothers offer several ‘experiences’ for visitors, as well as options for those who decided to pop-in during the day. I did the ‘Wine and Food Adventure’, which normally costs $250 per person. It’s a five to six hour experience that begins with a tour through the on-site garden with head chef Bodee Price, followed by a guided winery tour and tasting, and a long degustation-style lunch featuring produce harvested from the garden that morning. If you want to stay overnight, the Lancemore Milawa, directly across the road from the winery, is a great option.
Bodee has worked at top restaurants overseas and in Australia, and has transformed the Brown Brothers Restaurant into a fantastic hatted spot. Prior to the pandemic, Bodee hadn’t had much experience in the garden, and used the time to train himself, while converting various unused spaces, into places where he could grow produce for the kitchen. Today, the kitchen uses, as much as is possible, produce grown on-site. During the summer, up to 80% of what’s on the menu is from the kitchen garden.
The kitchen tour is insightful, with Bodee sharing his continuing journey and knowledge, while taking you through the various parts of the winery that he’s repurposed to grow produce. There’s full-on garden beds, and even unexpected things, like the use of the little bits of what was sand and rock in between parking bays in the parking lot, to grow native Australian herbs.
Bodee’s food is excellent. It’s a set menu designed to showcase the best of the seasonal ingredients being grown on site. Vegetables are a big focus, as is the use of by-products from the winery and the kitchen to keep waste to a minimum. It’s things like pork belly with kohlrabi and fermented plum; eggplant with smoked yoghurt, hempseed, and saltbush; and a tartlet of parmesan custard, pine mushroom, and thyme. If you don’t have the time the full set menu, you can also order an assortment of snacks that you don’t need to book in advance for.
Being an invite, I didn’t pay for my Wine and Food Adventure experience, but I happily took out my wallet before driving back to Melbourne and purchased several bottles of wines for home. I left Brown Brothers with my preconceptions about the brand well and truly smashed. While their entry-level wines and Moscato are what most, at least in my circles, know them (and often dismiss them) for, there’s so much more to Brown Brothers than that. Visit the winery, and you’ll be treated to some of regional Victoria’s best wines and eats, and an overall great experience.
Brown Brothers Winery
239 Milawa-Bobinawarrah Road
Milawa
Victoria 3678
Australia
Telephone: (03) 5720 5500
E-mail: [email protected]
Website
Open
Mon – Sun: 9:00am to 5:00pm