Some drinks are happy being poured into a glass and left alone. Others have spent generations being mixed, warmed, diluted and generally experimented with. Yates’s Original Australian White is the Aussie White that fits the second category.
Known affectionately as Aussie White, this distinctive wine liqueur has been a favourite across the North West for decades. But what should you actually mix with it? If you’re revisiting an old favourite, start with a few good places. If you’re trying it for the first time, you can start there.
Before reaching for the lemonade, it’s worth understanding what’s in the bottle. Yates’s Original Australian White is a sweet, muscat-style blend of Australian wines and grape brandy, with an alcohol content of 17.5% ABV. That makes it quite different from the dry Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio you might ordinarily have in the fridge.
Aussie White has a pronounced grape flavour, plenty of fruitiness and a distinctive sweetness. Some descriptions also mention honey and dried fruit, with a gentle warmth from the brandy. It’s this combination that makes it particularly versatile.
Rather than treating Aussie White like an ordinary white wine, think of it as something that can be enjoyed in smaller measures, lengthened with mixers or even served warm. And there’s certainly no need to get the cocktail shaker out.
Yes, and Aussie White with lemonade is one of the best-established ways to enjoy it.
The combination is wonderfully straightforward. Aussie White brings the rich, fruity flavour, while lemonade adds bubbles, a little citrus and a lighter finish. It’s also one of the traditional ways of serving the drink, rather than a modern cocktail invention.
Ingredients:
Method:
Fill a tall glass with ice. Pour in the Aussie White and top up with lemonade. Give everything a gentle stir and add a slice of lemon.
Our suggested starting point is one part Aussie White to two parts lemonade, although there’s nothing stopping you adjusting that to taste. The result is sweet, fruity and refreshing, with the lemonade making the wine’s richness a little less pronounced.
One thing to remember, though: Aussie White is already sweet. Adding lemonade makes for a particularly sweet drink, so this combination won’t necessarily appeal to everyone.
Which brings us neatly to the next option.
Absolutely. Soda water and lime are particularly good choices if you prefer something less sweet.
Unlike lemonade, soda water doesn’t introduce another helping of sugar. Instead, it adds bubbles and dilutes the richness of the wine without competing with its flavour. A squeeze of fresh lime brings some welcome sharpness.
It’s a combination that allows you to taste the Aussie White while giving it a lighter, fresher character.
Ingredients:
Method:
Add ice to a tall glass, followed by the Aussie White and fresh lime juice. Top with soda water, stir gently and finish with a wedge of lime.
This is probably the option we’d suggest to anyone who finds Aussie White a little too sweet on its own. You still get that unmistakable fruity character, but the lime provides a sharper finish.
Better still, there’s nothing particularly complicated about making it.
Yes. In fact, serving Aussie White chilled or over ice is one of the simplest ways to enjoy it.
Sometimes the most obvious answer is the right one.
Aussie White doesn’t need an elaborate mixture of spirits and syrups to make it interesting. It already has more than enough character of its own.
Pour a modest measure into a short glass with a few large ice cubes and you’ve got a perfectly respectable drink.
As the ice melts, it gently dilutes the wine, taking the edge off its richness.
For a little extra sharpness, squeeze in a wedge of lime.
Start with around 50ml of Aussie White over ice.
If you’ve never tried it before, we’d suggest tasting a little of it chilled and without anything added first. That gives you an idea of its sweetness and flavour before deciding whether you want to add a mixer. And if you enjoy it exactly as it is? Well, that’s one less ingredient to worry about.
Now we’re getting to something particularly interesting.
Yes, Aussie White can be served hot, and this was once one of the most recognisable ways of drinking it.
The traditional hot drink was known as a Blob, a speciality closely associated with Yates’s Wine Lodges.
The basic idea was simple: Australian White, hot water and sugar, often with lemon.
It might sound slightly peculiar if you’re accustomed to serving white wine straight from the fridge, but hot wine drinks have a long history.
And for generations of customers in the North West, a Blob was a perfectly ordinary thing to order.
Ingredients:
Method:
Place the sugar cube and lemon in a heatproof glass or mug. Add the Aussie White, followed by the hot water, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Use hot water rather than boiling the wine itself.
The result is warming, sweet and considerably different from an Aussie White served over ice. These are suggested modern measurements rather than an original Yates’s recipe. Historical accounts establish the ingredients, but not a definitive ratio.
We’ll explore the Blob and its history in more detail in a separate article, because frankly, there’s quite a story behind it.
Here’s an unusual one. Stories from former Yates’s customers describe something called a Super Blob, apparently made by replacing the hot water in a traditional Blob with cider.
It’s a fascinating bit of Northern pub folklore, although we haven’t found an official Yates’s recipe confirming precisely how it was prepared.
That doesn’t mean we can’t have a go at recreating the idea.
Ingredients:
Method:
Gently warm the cider in a saucepan without allowing it to boil. Pour the Aussie White into a heatproof glass, add the warm cider and finish with lemon.
Taste before adding any sugar, because you’ve already got plenty of sweetness from the wine. This is our interpretation of a drink remembered by former customers, not an authenticated historical recipe.
Still, there’s something rather appealing about a drink with a name like Super Blob.
That depends entirely on how sweet you like your drinks.
For a traditional, easy-going long drink, lemonade is an obvious choice.
If you’d prefer something lighter and sharper, soda water and lime would be our recommendation. For those who enjoy the wine’s characteristic flavour, a glass of Aussie White over ice might be all that’s needed.
And if you’re interested in experiencing something from the old Yates’s Wine Lodge days, the hot Blob is well worth knowing about.
The best part is that none of these drinks requires specialist equipment or an extensive drinks cabinet. A bottle of Aussie White, a few everyday mixers and a little curiosity will do nicely.
Yes. Here! Despite periods when bottles were difficult to find, Yates’s Original Australian White returned to wider distribution in 2024, much to the delight of its longstanding fans.
Its return attracted particular interest across Liverpool and the North West, where the drink has a loyal following.
At Hops & Barley, we think it’s good to see a distinctive old favourite getting some attention again. Whether you remember ordering it in a Yates’s Wine Lodge or you’ve only recently heard about it, Aussie White is a drink with more possibilities than its name might suggest.
And who knows? You might find that your favourite way of drinking it is one you’ve never tried before.
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