“So, here we were in the warm embrace of the Brown Brothers’ matriarch; the Patricia range of wine in part celebrates the winery’s matriarchal heritage,” writes wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.

Brown Brothers has recently released the 2022 Patricia series and kindly sent me three bottles for review, a cabernet sauvignon, a sparkling and a shiraz.

My son and I enjoyed the 2022 Patricia Shiraz at a recent dinner where we celebrated his return from an overseas holiday.

As a treat in these increasingly financially constrained times, I’d bought eye fillet steaks to ensure we had an agreeable food and wine match. I’m not saying I’m hard up, but if money talked, mine would just whisper: “Goodbye”. Plus, with the rate at which my superannuation savings are dropping because of Trump’s Gulf war, my super account and I have something in common: we both avoid looking at each other.

So, an examination of the wine was a good distraction and a welcome way to celebrate the return of the prodigal son.

I asked him why he hadn’t returned the camouflage jacket that I’d lent him and his excuse was that he couldn’t find it.

So, here we were in the warm embrace of the Brown Brothers’ matriarch; the Patricia range of wine in part celebrates the winery’s matriarchal heritage.

In 2003, the then winemaker decided to name some of the best wines after his mother, Patricia Brown (1915-2004). Apparently, he was very surprised when she said: “Well, boys, it better be bloody good.” 

And it is, with each bottle inscribed with her signature. 

The shiraz, which retails for about $70, could probably have been stored for at least three to five years to reach its peak but it is drinking well now.

It is dark red in colour with a purplish hue, aromatic with, on first opening, a good clout of blackberry on the nose.

On first taste, it is intense and mouth filling, a good balance of fruit and alcohol and it maintained its length over the course of the hour the bottle was open.

The blurb on the back label promised white pepper and spice. I didn’t get the peppery flavour, but that was most likely because, with the food, the peppery element of the wine didn’t turn up.

As anticipated it was a great match with fillet steak cooked medium rare with a red wine sauce that also featured garlic and rosemary, bold flavours that needed a big red.

This wine was aged in oak and where a wine is aged in oak barrels, especially new oak, it can pick up compounds that smell like baking spices, often clove or vanilla. There was a tiny hint of clove in this wine.

In addition, the “white pepper” flavour in wine is very closely linked to the same compound that gives black pepper its aroma: rotundone.

This is a chemical found in grape skins and its levels are affected by the length of ripening, with very ripe grapes having a much greater chance of tasting of black pepper. But, as I said, that peppery note was missing. 

I asked my son what score he’d give to the wine but he declined to allocate a number, just saying “great wine for steak”. A good decision re the points as a matriarch doesn’t keep score. She is the score.