6 of the Best English Dessert Wines

English dessert wine is rare and made in small amounts, but the best bottles hold their own against sweet wines from far warmer places. A Hampshire ice-wine-style Bacchus has won silver at WineGB in 2023 and 2026, a Surrey estate has made a botrytised Ortega only in the vintages that allow it, and a Kent late harvest wine has the late Matthew Jukes of Vineyard Magazine calling it "mind-bendingly stunning". Prices run from £17 for a half-litre bottle to £122 for a collector's 37.5cl.

English dessert wine at a glance

What is English dessert wine?

Dessert wine is sweet wine served with or after pudding. In England it is made in three main ways. For a late harvest wine, grapes stay on the vine into autumn, so the sugars concentrate. For a noble rot wine, a fungus called botrytis shrivels the berries and intensifies their sweetness, which needs damp mornings followed by warm afternoons. For an ice-wine style wine, picked grapes are deliberately frozen and pressed while still frozen, so the sweet juice runs off and the frozen water stays behind. Genuine ice wine is made from grapes that freeze naturally on the vine, which England's winters rarely allow.

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A cool climate keeps the acidity high, so the sweetness tends to taste bright rather than syrupy. Dessert wine is usually sold in smaller bottles than the standard 75cl: 37.5cl is a half bottle, and some come in 50cl.

Late harvest: Biddenden, Kent

The Schönburger 2025 (£17, 50cl, 9%) is the easiest way into English sweet wine. It is light blush in colour, made from grapes left on the vine to build natural sugar, and tastes of honey, lychee and elderflower. Oz Clarke and Tom Surgey called it a "Lovely, lush, juicy wine" in Oz & Tom's English Wine Heroes 2026, and it won silver at WineGB 2026.

The Ortega Late Harvest 2018 (£122, 37.5cl, 10%) is the other end of the scale. The Ortega grapes stayed on the vine until late October 2018 and began to raisin, and fermentation was stopped at 10% alcohol with 122g/l of residual sugar. Tom Cannavan of wine-pages.com scored it 92/100 in September 2021, calling it "a lighter style than some botrytis-affected sweet wines". The late Matthew Jukes of Vineyard Magazine described the wine as "mind-bendingly stunning". The producer says it can be laid down for a further ten years. You can try these wines at the vineyard by visiting Biddenden in Kent.

Ice-wine style: Hattingley Valley, Hampshire

Entice 2025 (£27) is an ice-wine-style dessert wine made from Bacchus, the aromatic grape that also makes most of England's dry whites. The grapes are picked and deliberately frozen before pressing, rather than left to freeze on the vine. It won silver in the Still Wine Sweet or Demi-Sec class at WineGB 2026, following silver for the 2022 vintage in 2023. Decanter's Sylvia Wu scored the 2022 91 points in February 2024 and called it "A crisp, delightful English sweet wine made using the Bacchus grape". The tasting note lists lychee and lemongrass, with 145g/l of sugar balanced by 12.1g/l of acidity. Hattingley Valley opens for booked tours only, so book ahead to visit.

Noble rot: Denbies, Surrey

Noble Harvest 2025 (£35, 37.5cl, 11.5%) is made from a block of Ortega in the south of the vineyard. Denbies does not make it every year, only when the weather allows. Cool, misty mornings and warm afternoons let botrytis develop, and the pickers chose individual berries, which were pressed slowly over two weeks and fermented cool for 20 days. It was bottled in spring 2026 and won bronze in the Still Wine Sweet or Demi-Sec class at WineGB 2026, with silver for the 2022 vintage in 2023. Denbies suggests salty cheeses and lightly spiced Asian dishes. You can visit Denbies in Dorking, which is open daily.

Sparkling demi-sec: Ambriel and Nyetimber

Demi-sec means medium-sweet. In English sparkling wine it describes a dosage of 32 to 50 grams of sugar per litre, against under 12 grams for a brut. That pairs with puddings and spiced dishes without the sweetness of a still dessert wine.

Ambriel English Reserve Demi-Sec (£33.95) is a single-vineyard Pinot Noir that sits closer to off-dry than sweet. Decanter gave it a bronze with 88 points in 2023. You can visit Ambriel in West Sussex.

Nyetimber Cuvée Chérie (£42, 12%) is 100% Chardonnay from West Sussex and Hampshire. It won silver at the International Wine Challenge in 2025. Nyetimber suggests delicate desserts and lightly spiced savoury dishes. Nyetimber is a Vinebound Recommends vineyard and opens through ticketed Open Days.