Brown Brothers Finest Five Event With Broadsheet for Patricia Launch

Patricia wines are Brown Brothers premium range, and they don't automatically release this wine range every vintage unless "it's bloody good". Patricia was the matriach of the family and the wines do her proud.

One of the most unique and impressive venues in Melbourne for a significant event. 

Katherine and Caroline Brown are movers and shakers in the Australian wine industry.

In showcasing the wines, Brown Brothers brought in some of Victoria's finest producers to display their amazing food – including cheese, mussels, pasta, cured meats and beef – paired with five wines from the award-winning Patricia range. Broadsheet chose the best family-run producers to stand alongside wines by Brown Brothers – a family-owned winery in Milawa.

Harry the Mussel Man from Flinders Pier supplied first class mussels; Milawa Cheese offered their most-famous blue cheeses including a wine infused cheese; Salt Kitchen Charcuterie provided cured meats such as French dry-cured ham or guanciale in beautiful cones; Yarra Valley Pasta showed us how to perfect your dough rolling technique over a bowl of fresh pasta; and Milawa Beef gave us a delightful dish of their organic Angus beef.

It was great to hear from the Brown family; Katherine and Caroline and father Ross - talking about Patricia and the passion for excellence and authenticity.

This was a roaming event in the Converted Church with various wine and food stations - we wandered from room to room under the high ceilings; going back to the producers and the wines we connected with over again. Which was all of them. Confession - I spent half the night on station 1 and had to up my game. It was a fun and high quality event, as Brown Brothers events always are.

It was also cool to be the first to taste the new-release Brown Brothers Patricia wines!

Exceptional Patricia Chardonnay with a discernable elegance and vanilla hit. Note Ross brown enjoying a moment in the background (below).

We imbibed a wide range of top quality new release wines -  including Sparkling Pinot Chardonnay, Chardonnay, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Noble Riesling. Each was matched with delicious food from five of Victoria’s best local producers. I managed to connect with these legendary producers and family members throughout the evening.

Patricia Brown, the matriarch of the Brown family, must have been quite a lady. Not only did she run the household at the Milawa winery from 1939, she also travelled to promote the business, worked in the cellar door and led the exploration of wine flavours and food pairing within the business. As Ross Brown noted, they had many impromptu family meetings in the early days just sitting around, without it always being a formal board meeting.

To celebrate and recognise Patricia's hard work and support, Brown Brothers releases its latest Patricia wines each year on her birthday, March 17. Which also happens to be St Patricks Day! Only the best-version varietals can sit under the Patricia label. Every wine is held to a very high standard. If it isn’t up to scratch, it doesn’t get released that year.

What a night. Thanks to Brown Brothers and Broadsheet on such a stunning event.