Dessert wines are often heralded as some of the most exquisite wines in the world. In heaven, surely there will be an abundant supply of French Sauternes, Hungarian Tokaji, Canadian Icewine and German Trockenbeerenauslese. Now there is an ever expanding array of award-winning and sensory spinning Israeli dessert wines as well.  It seems only fitting that in wishing someone a “good and sweet year” this Rosh Hashana, Israeli dessert wines should be mentioned.  More Israeli wineries are offering sweetly decadent wines even though great effort had been expended to distance their dry wines from “liquid religion”, the sweet syrupy “sacramental” kiddush wines that had for too long become synonymous with Israeli wine. As Israeli wineries dramatically improved their dry or semi-dry table wines, their winemakers are becoming less cautious about risking the comparison since these expertly crafted dessert wines show the complexity, expressiveness and balance that was never expected of, nor destined for, kiddush wines.  

Although there are international standards on whether a wine should be labeled as dry, off-dry, semi-sweet or sweet by how much residual sugar is left in the wine after fermentation, in reality there is seemingly no consensus on what makes a wine a dessert wine except that it should be sweeter than a dry wine and served as or with dessert.   There are a few traditional tried and true methods used to make quality dessert wines that are being replicated in Israel with plenty of pleasurable results.

Historically, the Golan Heights Winery paved the way for quality dessert wines as much as it did for dry wines.  Notably, its Noble Semillon is a dessert wine that uses the fungus botrytis (often called “Noble Rot”) to concentrate the sugar contents, flavors and aromas (and reduce the water content) of white Semillon grapes. Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon are the two white Bordeaux grapes exclusively used to make decadent and often pricey Sauternes.  Additionally, they have made fortified dessert wines featuring the white Muscat Alexandroni grape. Fortified wines typically add brandy or spirits to a wine to boost both its alcohol level and its sweetness.  Their “Heightswine”, a play on Eiswein or Icewine, freezes grapes to concentrate flavors and sugar with similar results to Noble Rot. Under its Yarden label, the winery regularly releases this Gerwurztraminer grape-derived treat that opened the door for many other Israeli Gewurztraminer dessert wines.

Most noticeably and readily available is Carmel’s Sha’al Gewurztraminer. This is a late harvest wine where the grapes are left longer on the vines to gain a higher concentration of sugar, flavor and aromas than might be found in grapes destined for a drier incarnation.  Sha’al is Carmel’s most acclaimed vineyard in the Golan Heights. With regard to quality white dessert wines, typically cooler vineyards help produce more complex flavors, aromas and acidity to make for a well balanced wine. Tzora and Binyamina are also making well respected Gerwurztraminers.

Thankfully, there are too many Israeli dessert wines to mention (unless I was to merely provide a list). Some other wines of interest include the Moscato wines from Carmel, Dalton, and the Golan Heights wineries. Moscatos are slightly sweet, slightly bubbly wines heralding the popularity of Moscato D’ Asti from Italy. They are typically far less expensive (and less complicated) than many other dessert wines 

The Tishbi Winery has been making several red and white dessert wines including one of their newer releases: a fortified wine featuring red Barbera and Zinfandel grapes. This wine is made in the “Port-style” method, although only fortified wines from Portugal can be labeled Port, just as only sparkling wines from Champagne, France, can be called Champagne. The Negev’s Galai Winery also makes a delicious fortified red nicknamed “sweetie”.

 The well respected boutique Saslove Winery is also making two limited edition dessert wines with only a couple of hundred bottles of each wine (a barrel each). Their red is a fortified red dessert wine featuring Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from their Kadita vineyard in the Upper Galilee. Their white is a Gerwurztraminer “Icewine” that is a tribute to winemaker Roni Saslove’s recent studies in Canada.

Most boutique wineries shy away from dessert wines because they are labor intensive and often require a much higher ratio of grapes to fill a bottle compared to drier table wines.

Although fruit wines often unjustly get little respect from many wine writers, as dessert wines they often come into their own. As evidence, I offer a new cherry wine from the Golan Heights’ Odem Mountain Winery. Fermented from two different kinds of cherries, it displays the balance and complexity one would expect from a grape wine but it screams that it is made from cherries in every mouthful. And what fruit is more Israeli than the pomegranate? The  Rimon Winery produces a pomegranate dessert wine that provides an easy and delightful way of making any holiday meal more festive and more Israeli.

With so many delicious options, “a good and sweet year” is ours for the taking.