Fortified and fab, little known Topaque is a gem

As the nights draw in, it is time for good ‘sipping’ wines. One of my favourite firesidesippers is the sweet, dark, sticky fortified liqueur wine from Australia. Rutherglen Muscat is the best known of them, but less well known and equally good is its little-known cousin, Topaque.

Topaque is a new name for a very old wine, with a 120 year history Down Under. It has been made in the far northeast corner of Victoria near the Murray River since the gold mining heyday of the 1850s, where it was known until recently as Liqueur Tokay.

Topaque is made from the muscadelle grape, which is not part of the muscat family. It is a minor French grape popular in Monbazillac in the Dordogne, with a little planted in Sauternes, Barsac, Cadillac and Loupiac in Bordeaux for dessert wine blends.

In Australia, muscadelle thrives in the baking heat of Rutherglen vineyards. It was originally called Tokay because early settlers thought the grape was Hungarian or bore similarities to Hungary’s Tokay wine (made from furmint and harslevelu). But in 1976 a visiting French ampelographer Paul Truel identified it as muscadelle.

The name Tokay could no longer be used due to objections by Hungarian producers and the EU did not like the use of the word liqueur, so Rutherglen’s handful of producers devised another name – Topaque. This name is now mandatory on Liqueur Tokay labels made since 2016 – but despite efforts, the Topaque name has not really caught on yet. Perhaps it is because it doesn’t sound like a wine at all – more like a new toffee bar or perfume.

In the vineyard, muscadelle can cause problems for growers as its propensity to sweetness is very attractive to wasps and moths. It is also very susceptible to botrytis, hence its popularity in the botrytis-affected wine areas like Monbazillac and Sauternes in France.

Topaque is made in the same way as Muscat. Grapes are semi-raisined on the vine, partly fermented and fortified early with grape spirit (in the same way as port is) retaining natural sweetness. The newly fortified sweet wine is then subjected to an unique oxidative carmelising process that bears resemblance to Madeira’s canteiro heat treatments and the sherry solera.

Rutherglen’s Topaque and Muscat are then oak aged in casks and left to mature in furnace-like temperatures under corrugated iron roofs. They are bottled when ready to drink and don’t benefit from maturation in bottle. Once opened they should be drunk within a few months to make the most of their freshness.

The result is a dark, sweet liquid (with about 17.5 per cent alcohol) which tastes malty, treacley and often of cold tea. Tastewise, Topaque has more citric candied fruit character than the grapeyflavoured Muscat. Both are dark, hedonistically sweet wines, but Topaque often has a distinct green streak to its colour and more carmelised notes.

There are just eight producers focusing on these national treasures. Several are still family-owned with a younger generation now coming to the fore focusing on reviving them. Best known are Campbells, Stanton & Killeen, Chambers and Morris, but Seppeltsfield, Mcwilliams, Pfeiffer and Baileys of Glenrowan are also worth seeking out. Their selfimposed quality system has four quality levels: Rutherglen (aged 4 years), Classic (10 years) with Grand (15 years) and Rare (20 years+) reserved for special old solera bottlings.

Opinions are divided as to what to match with these delectable sweet stickies. Stanton & Killeen suggest pears poached in Topaque and toffee and nut ice cream or chocolate torte, other suggestions are as disparate as fresh juicy pineapple, dark chocolate, cheddar cheese – and even Stornoway black pudding. My preference with Topaque is a good blue cheese like Lanark Blue or Galloway’s Fleet Valley Blue.