Langton’s Selections Morris Rutherglen Old Premium Liqueur Rare Muscat, Morris Rutherglen Old Premium Liqueur Rare Tokay, Morris Durif
George Francis Morris established a 10 acre vineyard at Fairfield near Rutherglen in North East Victoria in 1859. By 1885 Morris owned the largest plantings in Australia, possibly the Southern Hemisphere with over 200 acres under vine. In it’s hey day Morris won 452 prizes at various wine shows and exhibitions home and abroad. At one stage 120 Chinese worked in the cellars. The onset of Phylloxera during the 1890s all but crippled the wine industry. The Fairfield property and vineyards were sold off around 1917. The dry-farmed Mia Mia Vineyard – still in family hands – was replanted in 1918-1920. The Morris business struggled through the 1930s, the war & post war economies landing up under corporate ownership in 1970. Charles Henry ‘Mick’ Morris, one of the great characters of the wine industry and fifth generation winemaker son David Morris, have continued the family wine making tradition making some of the greatest of all Rutherglen Grand and Old Premium Liqueur Rare Muscats and Tokays. Morris has reserve wines for blending going back to the 1890s. Morris, like the Barossa’s Seppeltsfield, is an important heritage site making living history. All of Morris fortifieds are terrific including Vintage Fortified reds (aka Port) and Solera Amontillados. The names have all changed over the years but Rare and Grand are the top regional classifications for Muscat and Tokay. Morris dry reds are very interesting wines as well, especially the Durif (also known in the US as Petite Syrah). The vines were planted in 1920 and originally earmarked for fortified production. However this rustic, earthy concentrated dry red must be one of the great value wines of Australia. Morris also makes a range of sparkling, white and red wines. Andrew Caillard MW, Langton's