How Sweet It Is

National Liquor News - April 2004

While it was De Bortoli’s Noble One which set the benchmark for Australian dessert wines in the early ‘80s, several other family-owned companies had been playing around with the style for some time. As far back as the 1950s, McWilliam’s was experimenting with botrystised wine, producing a 1958 Pedro Sauternes from some pedro ximenez grapes that had accidentally become botrytised. In celebrations to mark its 125th anniversary in 2002, McWilliam’s opened some of these old bottles and, remarkably, the wine was still luscious and golden. The tastings were particularly significant for McWilliam’s Victorian regional director, Max McWilliam, as he remembers his father Glen making the wine at the company’s Riverina winery.

“Pedro splits when a couple of clouds pass over,” said Max. “One year a mould grew.” His father had “read about this noble rot” and decided to experiment with making a botrytised wine. The wine was put away into the cellars of history and it was another few decades before the style came to light again, eventually putting the Riverina on the map as a producer of some of Australia’s best botrytised wines. McWilliam’s is still producing a Riverina Botrytis Semillon, its 2001 vintage showing intense aromas of dried apricot and spicy, nutty characters. The term Sauternes is no longer used on Australian wines, the name having been borrowed from the region of south-west France that produces sweet table wines from semillon, sauvignon blanc and muscadelle grapes. The most famous of them all is the very expensive Chateau d’Yquem.

The sugar in dessert wine – or “stickies” as we Aussies like to call them - comes from overripe grapes. The longer the fruit is left on the vine, the more dehydrated it becomes, producing an intensely flavoured sweet juice. The sweetest wines are those in which the grapes have become infected with the botrytis cinerea mould, also known as noble rot. The grapes become shrivelled and raisin-like, which concentrates the sugar, acid and flavours to produce a luscious sweet juice. More than a dozen Riverina wineries now produce botrytised wines, mostly from semillon. The success of this style has been pivotal for the Riverina, which until the arrival of Noble One and its successors, had been known largely as a bulk supplier.

Noble One carried the Sauternes label from its first release in 1982 until 1990, since when it has been described more correctly as Botrytis Semillon. In producing Noble One, winemaker Darren De Bortoli was inspired by some earlier wines made by his father and grandfather. In 1930, company founder Vittorio De Bortoli put aside a couple of casks of what is believed to have been botrytised wine made from pedro ximenez grapes. For family interest, it was bottled some 40 years later by his son, the late Deen De Bortoli, who in 1972 made a Sauternes-style wine of his own. It ended up in small barrels where it stayed until 1998, when Deen’s son Darren blended it with some botrytised semillon that he had fortified. The result, released under the Black Noble label, is similar in style to a Rutherglen tokay, a very rich dessert wine with hints of coffee and licorice.

Other Riverina producers have hitched a ride on the coat-tails of De Bortoli’s success. Miranda Wines produces a much-awarded blend of Riverina Semillon and Riesling from Victoria’s High Country. Its Golden Botrytis is keenly priced at around $15 retail and has lovely citrus, marmalade and honey notes. Public relations spokeswoman Sandra Miranda tells how sweet success sometimes happens overnight. In 1997, after a very dry year with low humidity through summer and autumn, the fruit was left on the vine to develop the prized “noble rot”. Weeks went by and no botrytis occurred, but the sugar content of the grapes was very high and a decision was made to harvest the grapes the following day.

The last word was not written, however. “That night it rained and the next day it was too wet to harvest and over the weekend the beautiful botrytis appeared,” Sandra said. “By Monday morning, botrytis set in 80 to 90 per cent of the bunches, which were starting to look odd as there were no leaves on the vines. During the first few days of June, the botrytis fruit was carefully handpicked and brought to the winery.” The 1997 Golden Botrytis was one of the finest yet. The wine is now the number one selling dessert wine in Woolworths nationally and Sandra says McGuigan Wines, which took over Miranda Wines late last year (2003), is committed to continuing its production.

Another excellent Riverina wine is 3 Bridges Golden Mist, which comes in an elegant tall bottle. This botrytised semillon is produced by Westend Wines, which was founded more than 50 years ago by Francesco Calabria. Son Bill is something of a novelty in winemaking circles, being responsible for making quality wines despite being a non-drinker. Orlando Wines drew on semillon from the Riverina to produce its 2001 Gramp’s Botrytis Noble Late Harvest, which sells for around $16 and has appealing marmalade and apricot flavours. Surprisingly few botrytised semillons are produced in the Hunter despite semillon being the region’s flagship variety. Margan Family Winegrowers has had some success, its 2003 Botrytis Semillon being the fifth year in a row that winemaker Andrew Margan has produced one. He has tried to expand its production but so far he has been able to get good botrytised fruit from only one of his vineyards, 40-year-old dryland vines formerly owned by Lindemans.

While it is semillon that the Riverina does well, elsewhere it is the Riesling grape that lends itself to botrytis. Hardys has drawn on Padthaway fruit for its 2002 Noble Riesling which has pale yellow/green hues and apricot/citrus characters. Try it with rockmelon and brie, blue cheese and pears, or simply pour over icecream for a truly decadent dessert. Hardys was something of a trailblazer in the Padthaway region, having planted its first vines there in 1970. Autumn sees the area subjected to early morning fogs that clear to reveal mild sunshine, causing riesling in the flatter areas of the vineyard to develop the botrytis mould.

Mitchelton Wines in Central Victoria has a one-hectare low block near the Goulburn River which regularly gets botrytis, so it leaves this fruit on the vine for up to four weeks after its main blocks of riesling are harvested. The 2003 Mitchelton Blackwood Park Botrytis Riesling sells for about $17. Vasse Felix draws on fruit from Western Australia’s Mount Barker region to produce its Noble Riesling. The 2002 vintage, now sold out, was particularly ideal for botrytis being an extremely long vintage with cool, mild and dry autumn conditions, allowing the infected grapes to concentrate on the vine without risk of rotting.

Like McWilliam’s and De Bortoli, Brown Brothers was one of the pioneers of botrytised wines in Australia, John Brown Senior having produced his first Noble Riesling in 1962. He still considers it one of his favourite wines, and the judges must think so too, for the company has won the trophy for best sweet white wine for three years running at the National Wine Show in Canberra. Now labelled Patricia after the family matriarch, the 1999 vintage has delicious butterscotch and honey characters and sells for about $26. Across the Tasman, Oyster Bay is producing a Botrytised Riesling from its Marlborough vineyard. It’s not made every year but the 1999 vintage was a very favourable one for the style and the wine has classic dried apricot, marmalade and citrus characters.

Several companies are drawing on less common grapes to produce their stickies. Wolf Blass has a Botrytis Gewurztraminer in its new Gold Label range, a premium line with a regional focus. The Gewurztraminer comes from the Clare Valley and like all the others in the Gold Label line-up, is bottled under screwcap. Victoria’s Trentham Estate makes a Noble Taminga with a tangy sweetness, ripe apricot and marmalade flavours, and a zesty acidic finish. The 2000 vintage sells for around $11.95. The Taminga grape variety was created by the CSIRO in Mildura by combining riesling, gewurztraminer and the little-known Spanish variety farana. It is a particularly high yielding, late-ripening variety suited to hot climates. Brothers Pat and Anthony Murphy planted it in 1974 and initially made it into a dry white which they found difficult to market. In 1988, they decided to make it into a dessert-style wine and have been doing so ever since.

Yalumba Wines produces Noble Pick Viognier using the aromatic Rhone Valley variety that it has been growing with great success in South Australia’s Eden Valley. It was first produced in 1998 after the company rightly thought that the synergy between the luscious flavours of viognier and the botrytis influence would complement each other. Not all dessert wines are botrytised. Sometimes they are merely late-harvested as in the case of the 2001 Punt Road Late Harvest Semillon, a newcomer to the market and one worth keeping an eye out for. It is made in the Yarra Valley but the fruit comes from the Riverina. Available in small quantities (only 170 cases were made), it comes in a 500ml bottle (not 375ml as is usual for dessert wines) and sells for around $26.

At Kalari Vineyards in Cowra, Valto and Pamela Heikkinen produce a Late-Picked Verdelho, while Canberra’s Lark Hill has produced a 2003 Late Harvest Traminer. Owners David and Sue Carpenter had planned to make a dry Traminer from some old-vine fruit they had been offered, but the very hot summer meant the fruit ripened early so they decided to sit back and wait till it was just beginning to raisin. Broke Estate in the Hunter Valley makes a dessert wine named Lacrima Angelorum (“Angel’s Tears”). Made from sauvignon blanc, without botrytis, the vines are starved of water and severed at the trunk, leaving the fruit on the trellis to dry slowly in the sun. The grapes are then hand-picked and hand-pressed.

Brown Brothers Orange Muscat & Flora is a late-harvest wine that was created by accident. Both varieties were brought to Australia in the 1960s by the CSIRO and Department of Agriculture. Brown Brothers planted them for dry white wine production, but then came the devastating summer of 1982/83 when crop levels plummeted and everything began ripening at once. Varieties with large followings were picked first and Orange Muscat and Flora, being experimental wines, were not considered first priority. The fruit was left on the vine for a few weeks and as the winemakers discovered, the resulting wine was considerably more flavoursome. It complements a wide range of desserts from lychees and mango to more elaborate desserts like crepes suzette.

Another Brown Brothers’ wine that makes a good partner for dessert is Moscato. Best served lightly chilled, it has flavours of fresh peach, passionfruit and a hint of mango, and a relatively low alcohol content of six per cent. Made from Muscat of Alexandria grapes, the wine has some residual sweetness with a “frizzante” sparkle on the finish. The 2003 vintage sells for around $14. Barossa winemaker Grant Burge is a great fan of Frontignac which pairs nicely with fruit desserts. His Lily Farm Frontignac ($12 retail) is so popular that in 2003 he planted another four hectares of the variety. Initially fruity on the palate, it finishes crisp and clean. Pfeiffer Wines, in Rutherglen, which also makes a Frontignac, produces an interesting dessert wine from tokay, a grape that is normally used to make fortified wines. Winemaker Chris Pfeiffer makes a fortified tokay but he also make an Auslese Tokay ($15) that is rich and sweet without being fortified. Others in the region are now copying him.

Botrytised and fortified wines pair beautifully with blue cheese, as the saltiness of the cheese is a good foil for the sweetness of the wine. Champagne and sparkling wines don’t usually have enough sugar to stand up to dessert. In matching a wine with dessert, the sugar level in the dessert should be lower than the sugar level in the wine so that it doesn’t overwhelm and flatten out the wine. For this reason, fruit desserts work especially well, while chocolate kills most dessert wine. You could try chocolate with a fortified wine or even a Cabernet Sauvignon with minty/chocolate flavours. Or better still, you could go for a beer. Belle-Vue Kriek, imported by Carlton & United, is made from sour cherries and is a great match for rich chocolate tart.

© Christine Salins

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