Ideas for serving Liebich fortified wines with food:
Bulk Ruby Grenache– Savoury ideas include glazing for caramelised onions, sauce for red game meats. For a cocktail, pour over crushed ice and top up with tonic water for a refreshing balance of sweet and bitterness from the tonic
Bulk Semillon / Muscat – Add a dash to custard, dilute 50% with water and add to stewed fruit, 50% diluted with water, ideal marinade for dried fruits used in Christmas cakes and desserts
Classic Muscat – Serve with fruit mince pies or desserts that feature citrus or stone fruits
Classic Frontignac – Serve with ripe berries or tropical desserts, fruity cheesecakes or pavlovas
Classic Semillon – Perfect match with sticky date pudding, traditional Christmas pudding and toffee desserts such as creme brulee
Grand Tawny – Perfect with traditional Christmas pudding, chocolate truffles and desserts that feature any type of chocolate or roasted nuts
Delicious sweet and sour Muscat vinegar made from Barossa Muscat fortified wine aged in oak barrels. This vinegar is obtained naturally as wine ages in barrels by “acetobacter”, which transforms the wine alcohol into acetic acid.
Use this vinegar to enhance food flavours. Use in place of red wine and balsamic vinegar to add lovely fruit flavours without adding darker colour to food and dressings. Perfect for a salad, glaze or drizzle over fruit.
Vinegar bottles are in limited stock, and only available at Liebichwein Cellar Door.
Make a Glaze
A sweet sherry style glaze is perfect to accentuate chicken or salmon flavours or use as a sweet dessert glaze on berries or ice cream.
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup Muscat wine vinegar
1 tsp water
Mix sugar and vinegar in a small saucepan. Simmer to form a thick syrup and remove from heat. Add one teaspoon of water to thin the syrup slightly.
In need of recipe ideas for a platter? Here is a delicious addition to a nibbles platter or cheeseboard for the start or end of a meal. Simply serve this pate with crackers or fresh crusty bread. It will go down a treat with your guests, especially with a glass of wine.
We used our homemade barrel-aged Muscat vinegar and Ben’s Blend bulk fortified wine. You may substitute these for any wine vinegar or Tawny style wine you have at hand. This dish can even be prepared in advance and frozen in small amounts to pull out for last minute entertaining. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
There are many helpful articles and creating the perfect party platter, like this one using locally made Wine Stains cheese boards made from recycled wine barrels.
Walnut, Mushroom & Port Pate
Ingredients
1 cup walnuts
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion chopped
5 cloves garlic
2 cups sliced mushrooms
½ cup parsely
2 tablespoons chopped rosemary
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
2 tablespoons tawny style port
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Directions
Toast walnuts in oven or dry frypan over medium heat. Put nuts aside to cool.
Heat olive oil in a frypan. Add onions and garlic and saute until translucent. Add mushrooms and herbs until the mushrooms are cooked.
Add a splash of vinegar and fortified wine (optional).
Let mushroom mixture cool before putting in food processor or blender. Add salt and pepper and pulse mixture.
Press into small containers and chill for a few hours before serving.
This grown-up ice cream sundae combines sweet fortified wine and honey into a delicious syrup that plumps up dried fruit, turning a summery dessert into an extravagance. Use your choice of dried fruit and nuts or whatever you have at hand.
Prep 5 mins Cook 20 mins Makes 6 Difficulty Easy
Ingredients
1/2 cup Fortified Barossa Semillon
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried figs, sliced
2 tbsp dried currants
1/2 cup toasted pistachios or almonds, finely chopped
6 cups vanilla ice cream
Directions
Heat fortified wine and honey in a small saucepan over low heat for a few minutes.
Stir in dried fruit, cover, and remove from heat. Allow to stand for 20 minutes.
Stir in toasted nuts just prior to serving.
Divide ice cream into serving bowls and pour sauce over the top.
These quick and easy fruity truffles are delightful to share with loved ones over a cup of tea or coffee. Serve with aged Grand Tawny Port or Classic Muscat for the complete indulgent experience. Perfect to make as gifts for a special occasion like Easter, birthdays, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
We have a preference for dark chocolate, but feel free to substitute with milk chocolate or use dairy-free chocolate and cake to make them suitable for vegan diets.
Prep 20 mins Standing Time 1 hour Makes 24 Difficulty Easy
Ingredients
1 cup dried fruit, chopped
2 tbsp. orange zest, finely grated
1/4 cup fortified wine
125g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
250g (2 cups) cake crumbs
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
Method
Put dried fruit in a bowl with some boiled water for 10-15 minutes then strain.
Mix fruit, orange zest and fortified wine of your choice.
Melt chocolate pieces using a double boiler or microwave in a glass bowl.
Add melted chocolate and cake crumbs to the fruit mixture and mix well.
Place coconut into a shallow bowl ready for coating truffles.
Roll mixture into small even balls with your hands, then roll each ball in coconut.
Rote Grutze is a beautiful grape dessert that reminds us of vintage and traditional events like the Barossa Vintage Festival. We are confessed dessert lovers and a bowl of these rich, flavourful little jewels is part of our German heritage.
It’s usually found only in Barossa homes during vintage using red grape varieties rich in colour like Mataro and Shiraz. You can use any grapes at hand or a blend of table grapes as we sometimes do later in the season. This food tradition was carried to Barossa settlements with its European settlers. Traditionally red berries were used in the dish, but the Barossa gave the dish it’s own regional stamp by using grapes. Think of this dish like a mulled wine jelly. Delicious!
Prep time 2 hours Cook time 15 mins
Ingredients
1kg bunches of late-picked shiraz grapes, washed
3 slices lemon, skin included
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons Sago or Tapioca pearls*
Method
1. Pull the berries from the grape bunches, place in a saucepan with the lemon slices, cinnamon and cloves. Boil for ten minutes, then allow to sit for 45 minutes for skins to infuse colour; the juice should be a rich dark colour, like red wine. Strain through a sieve, squeezing as much juice as possible. At this point you can freeze the juice, ready for future batches of Rote Grutze.
2. Return the juice to the saucepan with the sugar then sprinkle the sago/tapioca pearls over the top. Allow to soak for several hours in juice to save cooking time.
3. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring gently for 15 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and the sago is clear. Keep heating time minimal to preserve juice colour.
4. Pour the Rote Grutze into a bowl and allow to set in the fridge.
5. Serve warm or cold with lashings of runny local cream. It will keep for several days in the refrigerator and the consistency will thicken over time.
Tip: your supermarket may not have Sago. Tapioca pearls are a perfect substitute
