Hi all,
Recently we attended a wine tasting at our university where Askerne wines from Hawkes Bay came and we got to try 8 of their wines. All of them were delicious but one stood out to us and we just had to buy it. It was a Dessert Cabernet Sauvignon. This particular dessert wine was produced through fortification.
Fortification of a wine is where a neutral spirit, which is typically brandy, is added to a wine either during or after fermentation. Historically this was to increase the alcohol content in order for it to be preserved for longer. Dependant on when the spirit is added, the resulting wine is either sweet or dry. For sweet wines like this one, the spirit is added before the fermentation is complete. The extra alcohol content will kill off the yeasts, and there will be residual sugar left in the wine. This results in a fortified wine that is high in sugar and alcohol content. This one has 69 g/L of residual sugar and 16.5% ABV. As a quick comparison to other styles of sweet wine, The Agnes riesling that we reviewed had 177 g/L of residual sugar and only 10.5% ABV.
Price:
We bought this for NZ$ 21.50( £10.06, R 234.18, US$ 13.02) as we bought it at a tasting event. On their website, they do not have the 2021 vintage but they do have the 2022 vintage available for NZ$26.90 ( 12.58, R 293.00, US$ 16.28). Like most sweet fortified wines this is a 375 ml bottle.
Appearance:
Unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo of this wine in the glass properly, as we were so excited to get to tasting. Didier did manage to snap this selfie so you aren’t totally without visual reference.
It has a deep and intense ruby-brown colour.
Nose:
Straight away you could tell this wine had a high aromatic intensity. The flavours almost immediately wafted towards us. It has lots of dark fruit aromas, such as plums and dark cherries. There are also definitely dried fruits, like dates and raisins. Overall it smells very rich and decadent.
Palate:
Many of the flavours we noticed in the aromas were also present in the palate. There were plums and maraschino cherries, jammy fruits and some darker berry flavours. On top of all this, there was a light spice, leathery, tobacco aspect. These tertiary notes come from ageing in oak and in bottle.
In regards to the other characters on the palate; it was sweet, with 69 g/L of residual sugar, but there was also a nice acidity to balance it out. It was full-bodied, low in tannin, and had a high flavour intensity. The finish was medium long, with the sweetness lingering slightly longer than the flavour.
Conclusion:
Overall this fortified wine is of a high quality. It is something different and interesting, which is something that we are always looking out for.
We would recommend trying some of the Askerne wine products. They have wines in a few different price points and plenty of different styles so everyone can find something they enjoy. They also make wines with some slightly lesser-known grapes such as Viognier and Carmenère.
The dessert cabernet would pair very well with most cheeses and cured meats, nuts and chutneys. Or if you have a sweet tooth, any chocolate-based desserts would complement it very well.
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