Shop Sweet & Dessert Wine

Sweet and dessert wines achieve their concentration through a remarkable range of vineyard and winemaking techniques.

Some rely on noble rot, while others use late harvesting, cane cutting, drying or naturally frozen grapes to concentrate sugar, acidity and flavour.

The best examples are defined not simply by sweetness, but by the balance between concentration, acidity, texture and complexity.

Sauternes & Noble Rot

Sauternes is one of the world's most recognised sweet-wine appellations, situated south of Bordeaux.

Its great sweet wines are closely associated with Botrytis cinerea, or noble rot. Under suitable conditions, the fungus causes grapes to lose water while concentrating their sugars, acids and flavour compounds.

The collection has particular depth in Château d'Yquem, with multiple vintages represented in 375ml format, extending from recent releases through to mature back vintages.

This makes it possible to explore not only Sauternes itself, but how a great sweet wine develops across different vintages and periods of bottle age.

Tokaji & Aszú

Hungary's Tokaj region has one of Europe's oldest and most distinctive sweet-wine traditions.

Tokaji Aszú is produced using individually selected botrytised grapes, traditionally described through a system that included Puttonyos levels. Modern wines labelled 5 or 6 Puttonyos indicate richly concentrated Aszú styles, balanced by the naturally high acidity of the region's grapes.

The collection includes Royal Tokaji Blue Label 5 Puttonyos, Gold Label 6 Puttonyos and Nyulászó 1st Growth 6 Puttonyos Aszú, alongside Late Harvest Tokaj.

Australian Botrytis & Noble Wines

Australia produces several important expressions of botrytis-affected sweet wine.

De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon has become one of the country's defining examples, combining concentrated Semillon fruit with the complexity created by noble rot.

Henschke Noble Semillon provides another interpretation of botrytis-affected Semillon.

These wines demonstrate how Australia's climate and varieties can produce serious sweet wines with both concentration and balancing acidity.

Cane-Cut & Late-Harvest Wine

Cane cutting provides another route to grape concentration.

The fruit-bearing cane is cut from the vine, interrupting the grape's water supply and allowing the berries to dehydrate and concentrate before harvest.

The collection includes Mount Horrocks Cordon Cut Riesling, Pooley Butcher's Hill Cane Cut Riesling and Rockford PW Mayflower Cane Cut Semillon.

Late-harvest wines take a broader approach, allowing grapes additional time to ripen and accumulate sugar before picking. Cullen Late Harvest Chenin Blanc provides one example within the range.

Icewine & Iced Wine

Icewine is produced from grapes that freeze naturally on the vine and are harvested and pressed while still frozen.

Because much of the water remains behind as ice during pressing, the resulting juice is intensely concentrated while retaining high natural acidity.

The collection includes Pillitteri Estates Vidal Icewine from Canada.

Australian wines labelled iced may use different techniques and should not automatically be assumed to follow the same production requirements as Canadian Icewine. Frogmore Creek Iced Riesling offers another expression of concentrated sweet Riesling within the collection.

Vinsanto, Passito & Vin de Paille

Drying grapes after harvest provides another ancient method of concentrating sweetness.

On Santorini, Vinsanto is traditionally made from sun-dried grapes, with SantoWines represented across vintage and aged releases.

Italy's passito tradition is represented by Dal Forno Romano Vigna Seré Veneto Passito Rosso, while Prophet's Rock Vin de Paille draws on the dried-grape tradition associated with the French term vin de paille, or straw wine.

Each method concentrates the fruit before fermentation but produces distinctly different wines according to grape, climate and ageing.

Choosing a Sweet or Dessert Wine

For honeyed richness and botrytis complexity, look towards Sauternes, Noble One and other noble-rot wines.

Tokaji Aszú combines significant sweetness with pronounced acidity and long ageing potential, while Riesling-based cane-cut and Icewine styles offer a particularly vivid balance between sweetness and freshness.

Dried-grape wines such as Vinsanto, Passito and Vin de Paille provide another direction, often bringing richer dried-fruit, spice and developed characters.

Shop Sweet & Dessert Wine at Kent Street Cellars

Explore sweet wines from France, Hungary, Australia, Canada, Greece, Italy and New Zealand, including Château d'Yquem, Royal Tokaji, De Bortoli Noble One, Mount Horrocks and other benchmark producers.

Delivery is available Australia-wide, with same-day delivery also available across eligible Sydney metropolitan areas.