Australian/New
Zealand Dessert Wines
When you stop to think about dessert wines, it shouldn't be
surprising that Australia, settled by people from a country where Portuguese and Spanish
"fortified" wines were popular, would also produce similarly-styled wines to
those produced in Europe.
In fact, through the first half or so of the 20th century, most wines produced in
Australia were "fortified" wines such as Muscats, or Sherry and Port-styled
wines. The latter half of the 20th century has seen the tides shift to table wine
production.
The Australians call dessert wines "stickies".
In addition to some glorious fortified wines, producers of Semillon often make wines from
botrytized grapes (a mold which dehydrates them, concentrating the character of the fruit
and contributing a honey-like quality to the wines). We even see some late-picked
Rieslings from Australia which can be remarkable.
The major region for top quality fortified wines is Victoria, specifically north-east
Victoria.
Especially fine are the dessert wines labeled "Muscat", "Tokay" and
"Port".
The wines labeled as "Tokay" are made from a grape which is either the same or
related to the very minor variety used in many French Sauternes wines: Muscadelle.
Australian "Tokay" has little to do with those wines produced in Hungary.
Nor is it related to the Italian variety from Friuli which goes by the name
"Tocai" or, these days, "Friulano.". Nor is it similar to France's "Tokay-Pinot Gris" wine.
"Port"-styled wines are also of serious quality. The most famous is
Seppelt's "Para Liqueur Tawny Port", but Penfolds makes a good one as does
Yalumba and a small producer called Sevenhills. These are rarely made of traditional
Portuguese "Port" varieties, but Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre and Cabernet
Sauvignon. The Aussies are extremely patient in waiting for these wines to mature,
as most are in the style of a Tawny Port. Seppelts, for example, has more than a
hundred years' worth of Port-styled wines aging and releases a tiny amount of 100 year-old
"Para Liqueur Tawny Port" each year.
Some of the dessert Muscats are also patiently matured in wood and these easily rival the
famous Setubal wines of Portugal or some of the wood-matured Muscat wines from the Sherry
region of Spain.
Some Aussie/New Zealand Dessert Wines in Stock:
- SEPPELTSFIELD
The
Seppelt name is that of a pioneer from what is now Poland and the story
begins in the mid-1800s.
Joseph Ernst Seppelt came to Australia and settled in the Barossa Valley,
purchasing a property which is now called Seppeltsfield.
The first vintage of wine was made in the family dairy barn, it's
said. Old man Seppelt died as they were building a real winery.
His 21 year old son Oscar Benno Seppelt took over the family business and by
the turn of the century, his was Australia's largest winery, producing more
than 2 million liters annually.
Oscar decided, in 1878, to select one puncheon of "Port" wine which
would be matured in a special cellar for one hundred years. And so, every
year since then, this winery has set aside a small amount of its fortified,
Port-styled wine, with the idea of bottling it a hundred years later!
I've never tasted their 100 year dessert wine, but I can tell you their 21 year
old bottling is remarkable and even the 10 year old is stellar.
The winery continued to grow and in 1985 it was sold to a beer company. In
1994 the beer company changed its name to "Southcorp" and this firm
also purchased some other notable Australian brands (Penfolds, Lindemans and
Rosemount were also part of this large conglomerate).
Curiously, Southcorp or Fosters never could figure out how to sell the
magnificent sweet wines of the Seppelts brand. This would be like someone
buying Krug, Mumm's or Moet et Chandon and not having a clue as to how to market
Champagne.
Eventually the brand was sold. It was purchased by the Seppeltsfield
Estate Trust, a group headed by someone from Kilikanoon Wines, a small, moneyed
bunch who leased back quite a bit of vineyard land to Foster's.
We have a
fabulous pair of sweet wines from this historic cellar.
One is the 10 year Para "port." The fruit comes from the Barossa
Valley and the wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. It's
brown in color and has an amazing nose with notes of vanilla beans, sweet
candies, toffee and nuts. The flavors are sweet and intense, with a long
finish.
The 21 year old that's currently in stock is from the 1987 harvest. It's
Syrah and Grenache and spent more than two decades in wood. It's similarly
styled to the ten year old bottling, but is even deeper, richer and more
complex. If you've tasted this, then you know. If you haven't, well,
you don't.
- Currently in stock: SEPPELTSFIELD 10 Year $39.99 (750ml)
SEPPELTSFIELD 21 Year (1987) $72.99 (750ml)
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- YALUMBA "Clocktower Tawny Port" $10.99-750ml
- YALUMBA "Galway Pipe Port" $34.99
750ml
- YALUMBA "Museum Reserve Muscat" $15.99 -375ml
So Yalumba's been around since 1863...no wonder they're good at producing
Port and Muscat wines of special quality. The Clocktower is a smooth, lighter Port,
while the Galway Pipe Port has a more fine bouquet and longer finish on the palate.
The Muscat is intensely fruity and with a somewhat honey-like quality to the finish.
Their 50 year old Tawny Port seems to not be available currently and the
local rep says they've discontinued it. Too bad.
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- PENFOLDS
- Penfolds is, of course, an historic name in Australian winemaking.
They're famed for a number of table wines, but this is a good label to look
for with respect to "Port-styled" wine, as well.
The Penfolds clan first set aside a stash of Tawny "Port" back in
1915, a barrel which was referred to as "The Grandfather" since it
was already rather aged at that point. This was intended solely for
the pleasure of the Penfolds family.
The
wine is based on Mourvedre, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache, with occasional
additions of "other" varieties. The wine is matured for 8
years in wood before being transferred to a 6 tier "solera" for
additional wood aging. They estimate the wine spends another 12 years
in this solera system, so that the average age of today's
"Grandfather's Port" is 20 years. You can taste that it's
old, of course, as the wine is brown or mahogany in color and has the
classic nutty, toffee, caramel sorts of flavors typical of "tawny"
Ports.
It's worthy of comparison to the Seppeltsfield 21 year Tawny.
They also make an entry level bottling of "Port"-styled
wine. It's called "Club" Port and it's made of Mourvedre,
Shiraz and Grenache. They use quite a few different batches to blend
for consistency. We find it to be similar to a nice Portuguese Tawny
Port, as it's medium-bodied, nicely nutty with the dried fruit and toffee
notes of these sorts of wines. Sweet, but not too heavy.
Currently in stock: PENFOLDS CLUB PORT $12.49
PENFOLDS GRANDFATHER'S PORT $69.99-
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- CHAMBERS ROSEWOOD
The
Chambers' family has been making sweet wines in Australia since the late
1850s and it seems, over the course of time, they've perfected the recipe.
We've tasted some delicious wines from this firm, a specialist in Muscadelle
(Tokay) and Muscat. They make three "levels" of
dessert wines.
We usually have some bottles of their basic Muscat in the shop. This
is a delicious, sweet, raisiny dessert wine.
The middle level is called "Special" and the solera (stack of
barrels from which the wine of the bottom row is bottled and replenished
with wine from the next row of barrels above it which is younger) is said to
date back to the 1920s.
The top tier of wines are designated "Rare" and these, we're told,
hail back more than 100 years.
Currently in stock: Chambers Rosewood Muscat $17.99 (375ml)
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R. L. BULLER
These wines come
from the Rutherglen area of Victoria and are amongst the most highly-prized.
Their Muscat is very fine, too. It is very intense, displaying nutty
notes and some fragrances recalling rose petals.
- Available: Fine Muscat $13.99 (375ml)
By Special order:
Fine Tokay $13.99 (375ml)
Rare Tokay $71.99 (375ml)