By Christine Salins.
Heggies Botrytis Riesling
If you’re looking for wine to serve with dessert, go for a late harvest, botrytised or even a fortified wine. The longer that grapes are left on the vine, the sweeter they become. Sometimes they are left so long that they develop a mould called botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot.
These intensely flavoured wines are often called “stickies” and they are positively heavenly after a beautiful meal. Botrytised wines and fortifieds (like Muscat or Tokay) also pair beautifully with blue cheese, as the saltiness of the cheese is a good foil for the sweetness of the wine.
The NSW Riverina region has gained a reputation for its botrytised Semillon “stickies”, driven by the extraordinary success of De Bortoli’s Noble One, which set the benchmark for Australian dessert wines in the early ‘80s. Noble One was labelled Sauternes from its first release in 1982 until 1990, but since then has been described more correctly as Botrytis Semillon.
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.)
While the Riverina does Semillon well, cooler regions have great success with Riesling that has been harvested late or botrytised. Some Tasmanian winemakers put an international scale for sweetness on their Riesling labels to make it easier for consumers to choose.
Canberra winemaker Ken Helm specializes in Riesling to the extent that he has built a state-of-the-art winery just for Riesling, keeping it separate from the winery in which he makes his reds. As well as his Classic Dry Riesling, he makes a Half Dry Riesling similar to the halbtrocken style in Germany, with just a hint of sweetness and a dry finish.
The Fronti
Matching wine with dessert isn’t easy (but it’s a lot of fun!) It’s especially challenging to balance sweet flavours. The wine needs to be sweeter than the dessert, otherwise it will be overwhelmed and taste flat and thin.
Rich desserts such as crème brulée and chocolate can therefore be very challenging to match. You could try chocolate with a fortified wine or even a dark beer. Fruit desserts are much easier. Even a lightly chilled Moscato – slightly spritzy with some residual sweetness – goes well with fruit.
Heggies Vineyard 2021 Botrytis Riesling, $28: From a vineyard in South Australia’s Eden Valley that is near perfect for botrytis, this luscious, golden wine has intense apricot, citrus and honey notes that are beautifully balanced by a fine mineral acidity. Enjoy it with roasted pears, apricot clafoutis or a rich apple crumble.
JOSEPH ‘The Fronti’ Fortified NV, $50: The after-taste from this exquisite wine lingers long. A decades-old blend of Primo Estate’s 1981 Frontignan and some great old Australian fortifieds, it has concentrated flavours of coffee, caramel, dried fruit and Christmas pudding. Enjoy with a rich fruit cake or almond biscotti, or simply with coffee after a meal for a deliciously heady finish.
