113. Rutherglen Muscat

I was walking out the hospital on the morning of my last night shift last week. I had a massive smile on my face as I knew I had the next 4 days off and could relax after the stress and responsibility of nights. As I pressed the security button on the wall to let me out into the waiting room one of the nurses shouted after me.

It was Jayne, the emergency nurse practitioner that I’ve worked with a few times in Fast-track which is where the walking wounded and minor complaints are treated. “Are you going home?” she asked, “Yeah,” I replied, “I’ve just finished nights.”

“Well come with me,” she insisted, “I’ve got something for you.”

We went up to her office and she opened up one of the locked filing cabinets and took out a bottle of wine. “This is for you.” It was a bottle of Muscat and she went on to say that apparently I’d been a great help to her since I started working her and it was to say thanks. Also we’d spent a great deal of time talking about dessert wines the previous week and she had a few of these lying around. She and her husband know some guy at one of the Rutherglen wineries and they get all of these at “below-cellar-door” prices. It's amazing where "guessing with confidence" can get you!

I opened it as soon as I got home and had a taste. It was delicious, sweet and syrupy but that only just covered the powerful alcohol taste as it was about 15%. If you click on the picture above for a close up you’ll see the “fingers” running down the side of the glass which shows just how strong it was. Needless to say, it didn’t last very long but I really liked the bottle so I used it to make some home-made chilli and lemongrass olive oil. Looks good doesn’t it!