Drinky Desserts: Your Guide to Sweet Wine Styles

No longer relegated to the ‘what do I do with this?’ cupboard or have a capful for cooking and the rest left to gather dust, no no no. Sweet wines are back and FINALLY showing their worth to a whole new audience as the great drinky desserts they truly are, boosted by the summer trend for sweet wine cocktails and boozy puds.

Here’s your guide to some key styles of sweet wines from around the world that you can swap with sugar syrup in cocktails, simply sip chilled, or splash into your puddings. 

Noble Rot Style

TRY: L’Or du Ciron Sauternes 2016

Perhaps the most famous (and expensive) sweet wine in town, Sauternes is a posh, dessert vino from Bordeaux made largely with Sémillon and Sauvignon. Here, a ‘noble rot’ fungus desiccates the grapes so what is left is super concentrated, honeyed and sweet. Think marmalade, candied peel, marzipan and spice. Great alone or with ice and loves a lemon drizzle cake. 

Find here: M&S / Ocado
Price: £14.75

TRY: Château Combet Laroche Monbazillac

Often described  - a tad unfairly-  as ‘poor man’s Sauternes’, Monbazillac hails from just east of Bordeaux and makes wines in a similar style. Less unctuously sweet than Sauternes and often with a subtle, burned caramel flavour, this is a great, sugar syrup alternative in Old Fashioned twists and thanks to the lower price point, means less guilt when splashing it around!

Find here: Lidl
Price: £7.99 full bottle

TRY: Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh

A brilliant, price savvy Sauternes alternative, Pacherenc hails from Gascony in southwest France and uses gorgeously greengage-scented local grapes like Gros Manseng. A noble rot wine like Sauternes where affected grapes dehydrate and give a complex, marzipan note, this is a lighter, fresher version that’s crying out for citrusy cocktails. Use it to replace the vermouth and honeyed rim in the famous Oppenheimer martini cocktail.

Find here: Lidl
Price: £7.99 full bottle

Late Harvest Sweet white

TRY: Brown Brothers Orange Muscat & Flora

Late harvest wine is sweet because grapes stay longer on the vine and dry out, concentrating the sugars without the help of ‘noble rot’. This late harvest style keeps a more zesty freshness than the noble rot wines and this delicious drop hails from cool Victoria in Australia. It uses the grapey, floral Muscat grape and rare Flora grape to produce a lightly sweet vino that you’ll want to spritz on as perfume! Great in frozen cocktails and boozy brulées.

Find here: Tesco
Price: £8.50 half bottle

Moscato

TRY: Barefoot Pink Moscato

Cheap and very cheerful, Moscato wines are usually very fruity and sweet, aromatic and lower in booze than regular vino. Moscato is another name for the Muscat grape and this peachy pink from Barefoot is unashamedly ‘fun’, tasting like boozy strawberry ice lollies. It's perfect for pink, pimms-like wine cocktails. Just add peaches and strawberries with soda or lemonade!

Find here: Asda
Price: on offer £5.50 (down from £7.50)

Sweet Fortified: Muscat

TRY: Campbells of Rutherglen, Rutherglen Muscat

If you love the idea of boozy, salted caramel, then this dark, Aussie Muscat is for you! Gorgeously sweet with a salty freshness this sweetie style is unique to southern Australia’s Rutherglen area. It loves anything with spice or salt and is amazing in cocktails. Try it with fruit and cinnamon in a Rutherglen Sangria or pour it over ice cream with some coffee as an affogato. Stunning!

Find here: Waitrose
Price: £13.39

sweet fortified: Madeira

Blandy's Duke of Clarence Madeira

Madeira from the Portuguese island of the same name is the sweet-salty, nutty, fortified and aged booze that smells incredible, like fruit cake and fudge! Made with the red Negra Mole grape and white Malvasia, Bual, Verdelho and Sercial grapes, it comes in several styles from dry to lusciously sweet. And while it’s often relegated to splashing into Christmas puds, it’s actually rather wonderful in complex cocktails like a salted caramel martini or anything with chocolate in it. This one is full-on and fruity. Bold and retro.

Find here: Morrisons
Price: on offer £11.50 (down from £15) full bottle

Passito

TRY: Heaven on Earth organic, Fair Trade Muscat d’Alexandria

What is Passito wine? It’s a style of sweet wine that has been partially dried, often on straw, to allow water to evaporate before being pressed to concentrate the sugars. This golden, deliciously Autumnal wine is made with muscat grapes in South Africa and dried on a bed of Rooibos and straw. It’s grapey and peachy, all apricot and honey deliciousness! Awesome sipped alone or with blue cheese.

Find here: Ocado

Price: £10 (£8.50 on offer)

Splash out, passito: Vinsanto

Vinsanto 2002, Late release, Estate Argyros

Not to be confused with the fortified wine ‘Vin Santo’ from Tuscany, Vinsanto hails from Santorini in Greece and is made with Assyrtiko that has been aged for a significant amount of time. This 2002 late release was made with Assyrtiko grapes from over 200 year old vines and aged for at least sixteen years. It has insane complexity and is  beautifully balanced. You won’t want to mix this super special one - sip it alone, over ice cream or with a nibble of dark chocolate.

Find here: Epinoia.co.uk

Price: £76.70 Link

Enjoyed this? Make sure to check out more of our wine content here.

Why Sweet Bordeaux & Cocktails are the Perfect Match

Words by Aidy Smith

Bordeaux and Cocktails. At first glance your mind is probably a little boggled at how could these two words have anything in common? Well, there’s a very obvious link – and it’s not the Bordeaux’s top shelf reds. Bordeaux has large a production of white, sparkling and, most importantly for cocktails, sweet wine. 

Sweet Bordeaux has become side-lined over the years as a ‘seasonal trend’, appearing mainly around Christmas and other celebratory dates but it doesn’t have to be. This baffles the locals who drink their sweet wines as aperitifs, with main courses and as everyday tipples. To its producers, the moniker ‘dessert wine’ is akin to uttering the word Voldemort in Harry Potter (that’s not a good thing). 

While the older generation winemakers have tended to treat the notion of ‘Sweet Bordeaux Cocktails’ with dismay - it has been left to the younger generation winemakers to push for innovation, strive for change and educate the world on Sweet Bordeaux Cocktails.

Why does it work?

The keyword here is balance – that strike between acidity and sweetness. The wine acts as a perfect base in a cocktail, allowing a variety of spirits whether sweet, acidic, bitter or spicy to harmonise in the glass.

They also work really well when used as the base in sparkling cocktails (especially with champagne and English sparkling wine) as the acidity equalises incredibly well. 

Sweet Bordeaux comes in different prices and quality tiers. Starting with entry level, Premieres Côtes de Bordeaux wines, which you can expect to display typical aromas of grapefruit and citrus with a distinct sweetness that balances well alongside acidity. 

As you move to the mid-tier, sweet Bordeaux wines from Loupiac, Cadillac and Sainte-Croix-du-Mont offer a more structured profile, perfect for more sophisticated and complex cocktails. Here you can expect more abundant tropical notes to act as the base of a cocktail, such as dried mango, pineapple, apricot and even banana. 

Finally you have the top tier choices from the likes of Barsac and Sauternes, which range from the mid-£20’s to £100’s based on the notoriety of the Chateau or brand. Highly complex in nature with candied fruits, honey and orange peel being the staple notes, these are ideal for the high-end cocktail. 

What are they doing to encourage the use of sweet wines in cocktails? 

The Sweet Bordeaux group as well as a handful of producers are spending an increasing amount of time with bartending and mixology schools. While producers such as Cartron and Bastor Lamontagne have emerged as pioneers of the movement, others are following in suit and there are even examples of some SB brands being created specifically with cocktails in mind. A good example of this would be SO Sauternes and their infamous Sojito cocktail (a mix up of the Mojito with Sauternes).

Sweet Bordeaux cocktails have also made more appearances at global trade tastings as the group continues to emphasise their wines can be enjoyed as more than just a food pairing and aperitif. 

Given that Sweet Bordeaux has been around in the UK for centuries, why is the breakthrough happening now?

As the snobbery barriers of the wine industry continue to diminish and technology makes exploring and understanding wines easier (i.e. look at the sheer impact of apps such as Vivino), younger generation drink enthusiasts are beginning to pay a lot more attention to wines. 

Pair this newfound awareness and thirst to discover with a UK drinks industry renowned for world class mixology innovation and it’s not difficult to see why this new form of cocktail is beginning to show its face. 

What makes SB better than other sweet wines in the market?

The Sweet Bordeaux group has carried out research that shows wines produced from botrytised grapes and affected by noble rot are much more flavoursome and intense than wines created from other production methods (port, sweet sherry, Muscat, Madeira etc). 

An exceptionally wide range of aromas and tasting descriptors are Sweet Bordeaux’s USP, encompassing everything from ripe and tropical fruits to flowers, honey, orange peel and even spices. As a result, this allows sweet Bordeaux to become a solid choice for Mixologist’s wishing to add distinctive character within their drinks. 

If there were ever a time to get involved and showcase some true innovation within the Sweet Bordeaux cocktail space, now would be it. Santé!

Aidy Recommends: The Sauternes French Martini

Ingredients
20ml Grand Marnier
30ml Rabaud Promis Sauternes
Lemon twist

Method
Add all ingredients to a shaker, add ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a glass and garnish with a lemon twist. Enjoy!

Try These

Tanners Sauternes Half Bottle

Size: 375ml
ABV: 13%
Find here: £13.50

Château La Rame 2017 Ste-Croix-du-Mont Half Bottle

Size: 500ml
ABV: 13.5%
Find here: £14.99    

Tesco Finest Sauternes Half Bottle

Size: 375ml
ABV: 13%
Find here: £12