Divine Indulgence: Dessert & Fortified Wines
- Your Hunter Valley Magazine
- Jul 16
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 28
Pure liquid gold in every glass!
From exquisite Semillon to luxurious aged Muscat, Australia's dessert and fortified wines boast a rich and celebrated heritage, earning recognition as some of the world's most distinctive wines.
Before the mid-1960s, dessert and fortified styles were Australia's most renowned wines. While table wines now dominate the market, these indulgently sweet wines remain highly coveted. Crafted across regions throughout the country, Australia's dessert and fortified wines showcase diverse styles while consistently delivering excellence.
Produced using the same methods as traditional white wines, dessert wines are characteristically intense in flavour, displaying deep golden hues with aromatic profiles of dried apricots, luscious sweetness, and a crisp acidic finish.
Lovingly called 'stickies,' these sweet wines make an extraordinary pairing with fruit-based desserts and complement blue or soft cheeses beautifully. They also serve wonderfully as a standalone dessert course
to conclude a meal.
So, what's the secret to creating wines sweet enough to rival desserts?
Late Harvest: Often called liquid sunshine, these wines are crafted from grapes left on the vines until the end of harvest, allowing for maximum ripening before natural dehydration occurs. This process yields wines with elevated residual sugar (or alcohol, depending on fermentation duration). Late harvest typically signals a sweet dessert wine, including Late Harvest Riesling, Pinot Gris, or Semillon. Semillon remains the preferred grape for dessert wines due to its delicate skin, which facilitates superior botrytis development and consequently sweeter juice.
Noble Rot: For premium dessert wines of exceptional quality, winemakers take an additional step: hoping for vineyard infestation by noble rot. Despite its unappealing name, some of the world's most prized dessert wines come from grapes that are essentially... decomposed. The fruit becomes covered in botrytis cinerea fungus, known as "noble rot", causing shriveling and dehydration, leaving behind intensely sweet pulp that winemakers press for juice. Some of the world's finest sweet wines, including Sauternes from Bordeaux, are produced from noble rot. Australians recognise De Bortoli's Noble One Botrytis Semillon as arguably the country's most celebrated dessert wine.
Ice Wine (Eiswein): Freezing grapes offers another method to concentrate sugars for sweet wine production. When crafted traditionally, ice wine—or "Eiswein" in German and Austrian terminology—remains on vines well beyond typical harvest completion, until temperatures drop sufficiently for grape freezing. Ice wines are predominantly produced in colder climates, including Canada, Germany, and Switzerland.
FORTIFIED WINES
Fortified wines, such as Sherry, Port, and Madeira, are created by incorporating alcohol (brandy spirits) during the fermentation process. This process eliminates the yeasts responsible for converting sugar to alcohol, resulting in very sweet wines with alcohol levels between 15% and 20%.
The types of spirit used and the timing of their addition significantly influence the final wine style. Generally, earlier spirit addition produces sweeter wines.
Following fortification, wines mature in oak barrels, sometimes for decades, developing into complex, aromatic wines with remarkable depth and concentrated flavour and colour.
Muscat grapes produce various sweet dessert wines across different regions worldwide. These are typically fortified wines, although some sweet late-harvest and noble rot wines also utilise Muscat grapes.
Liqueur Muscat is a fortified wine made from Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, a white wine grape considered among the world's oldest varieties (also called Brown Muscat grapes). This wine is sweet, dark, and highly alcoholic, sharing characteristics with Portuguese fortified wine Madeira.
Dessert & Fortified Wines to try this month!
Hungerford Hill
Liquer Muscat
Grand muscat matured in oak barrels, in the Hungerford Hill cellar for over a decade. Laying in wait developing the smooth rich aromas and flavour that have been loved for decades.
TASTING Fragrant maple and oak on the nose. A dance of honey and raisins slides across the palate. With a lingering and invigorating finish.
FOOD MATCH Sticky Date Pudding, Viennetta Birthday Cake, Apple Crumble, or Castello Blue Cheese.
CELLARING Cellar for 5+ years, but why would you wait?
PRICE $55
Hungerford Hill
Botrytis Semillon 2023
Botrytis Semillon is a sweet white wine produced from the Semillon grape variety that has been affected by the noble rot fungus, Botrytis cinerea. This beneficial mold causes the grapes to dehydrate and concentrates the sugars, resulting in a luscious and intensely flavoured wine.
TASTING Bright mid gold with green hues, the lifted bouquet displays apricots with a lime marmalade character. A luscious and rich palate shows beautifully integrated toasty oak with citrus acidity to balance the richness and finish clean.
FOOD MATCH Enjoy with a cheese plate, or a vanilla bean ice-cream, pancake, waffle or a fruit
based dessert.
CELLARING 5-10 years.
PRICE $35
Saddler's Creek Wines
NV Saddler's Rare Muscat
The grapes are left until late in the season to achieve optimum ripeness, ensuring maximum
fruit flavour and a high degree of natural sweetness. Only selected parcels of premium fruit are added to the Rare Muscat.
TASTING This rare muscat has intense aromas of butterscotch, fruitcake and caramel, supported by a lush palate of raisin, burnt toffee, butterscotch and dried fruit characters. This finish is long and delicate.
FOOD MATCH Enjoy with Grand Cru Cuvee Chocolate, also wonderful with cheese.
CELLARING 5-10 years.
PRICE $40.
The Garden Cellars
Starboard Port White Muscat
The Garden Cellars Starboard Port White Muscat is a blend of light and fruity flavours, leaving a sweet honey finish on your palate. Whether you’re in the mood for dessert or in need of a winter warmer, this wine is the perfect choice.
TASTING Sticky, sweet fruits with a rich honey finish.
FOOD MATCH Pairs well with desserts as well as spicy foods.
CELLARING Ready to drink now.
PRICE $22 (2 for $35).
Tamburlaine Organic Wines
2017 Reserve Noble Riesling
Sourced from the cool-climate, high-altitude vineyards of Orange, NSW, this late-harvest Riesling is crafted with a portion of botrytised grapes, featuring aromas of tropical fruits.
TASTING Lime and sherbet-like acidity.
FOOD MATCH Perfect with an after-dinner cheese board.
CELLARING 8+ years, keep away from strong light, at a cool, constant temperature <15°.
PRICE $39
Saddler's Creek Wines
2019 Saddler's Botrytis Semillon
Walking in the footsteps of its predecessors, the 2019 Botrytis Semillon is true to the award winning style that many have come to expect.
TASTING Marmalade, lemon curd and just a note of wild honey with a refreshingly clean finish. Overtime, the palate will further develop depth and richness.
FOOD MATCH The mouth filling sweetness allows this to be enjoyed with either a spicy curry or a sweet dessert.
CELLARING 5-10 years.
PRICE $40
