De Bortoli Black Noble NV Riverina Australia

De Bortoli Black Noble is a Non-vintage wine from Riverina in New South Wales in Australia, it is a lovely deep brown colour that is reminiscent of syrup of figs ( nicely), it has aromas of honey, prunes and some tea and spice mixed in - and I can't wait to try it. On the palate it is rich, silky, lusciously sweet, prunes and figs, espresso coffee, toffee and marmalde all come to mind, layered and complex, but kept fresh by the acidity which balances those sweet notes. The finish is very long and tangy and dry at the end. This wine has made from the Semillon grape which has seen Botrytis Cinera and fermentation has been stopped early by fortifying it, the Solera sytem of maturation is used, 8 years being the average time. 30% new oak is used in the maturation the rest going into barrels previously used for Noble One's maturation. This wine is redolent of Madeira and would suit similar foods, some puddings, but paired with cheese it could be a marriage made in heaven. Yummy - the main word that comes to mind!

It is available at £15.95 from Four Walls Wine Company for a half bottle, but it is rich, luscious, unctious...... lovely to come home to in the fridge after a hard day.
Score : 93

Botrytis Cinerea is a fungus that can infect grapes in the correct conditions, good rot is called Noble rot - the desired one ( the bad one - grey rot results in wiping out the harvest), there are areas in the world that this can happen naturally and one of these is the area around Sauternes and Barsac in Bordeaux left bank.The aszu wines of Tokaji wines are also produced having been affected by Botrytis Cinerea. It needs a temperate climate and ideally early morning mists ( off cool water) and sun later in the day so the grapes are kept dry in those autumn afternoons. Not all grapes will be affected, and some may take longer to mature which is why several pickings - called Tries- are needed to get all the grapes at thier ideal condition.
The fungus affects the skins and feeds off sugars in the grape itself, but also uses about 50% of its water contained in the grape, so overall the grapes sugar concentration increases! Additionally acids are also consumed ( 5/6ths of the Tartaric acid in the grape is consumed). By products that are produced include glycerine ( the chemical which makes the wine feel viscous), acetic acidand a selection of enzymes. Phenolics of from the skins are also consumed so reducing the tannic structure.
Due to the reduction in water content of the grape the juice produced from Noble Rot infected grapes is low - often in the range of 15 hl/ha.

De Bortoli - how they started.
De Bortoli Wines is a third generation family wine company established by Vittorio and Giuseppina De Bortoli in 1928. The couple emigrated to Australia from Northern Italy, from mountain villages at the foothills of the Italian Alps, near the historic town of Asolo.

Their son, Deen De Bortoli, (b 1936 – d 2003) expanded and consolidated the business created by his parents. Deen's children continue De Bortoli's winemaking including icon dessert wine Noble One and the Yarra Valley wines.

De Bortoli Noble One 2008 Riverina Australia

De Bortoli Noble One 2008 from Riverina in New South Wales, Australia, a real 'sweetie', produced in a difficult year, it is complex with the Botrytic notes (see below) controlling the aroma palate. On the nose, honeyed marmalade with pithy lemon thrown into the mix, above all it smells rich and fresh.
On the palate, honeyed and sweet, nearly luscious, with citric notes across the board, a smatter of ginger and marmalade, a really long finish after that fresh zesty start. This is a wine to be savoured, it is complex and inticing, and at 10% abv - one feels that it is not such a sin to indulge. This would be great with some puddings - but adorable with cheese!
The vintage was a difficult one that started well with warm wet weather, but then dry warm conditions took over not to return to the wet conditions that the Botrytis likes until March with the harvest started in April and finished in June - the brave were strong and left the grapes to mature on the vine.


Botrytis Cinerea is a fungus that can infect grapes in the correct conditions, good rot is called Noble rot - the desired one ( the bad one - grey rot results in wiping out the harvest), there are areas in the world that this can happen naturally and one of these is the area around Sauternes and Barsac in Bordeaux left bank.The Aszu wines of Tokaji wines are also produced having been affected by Botrytis Cinerea. It needs a temperate climate and ideally early morning mists ( off cool water) and sun later in the day so the grapes are kept dry in those autumn afternoons. Not all grapes will be affected, and some may take longer to mature which is why several pickings - called 'tries'- are needed to get all the grapes at thier ideal condition.
The fungus affects the skins and feeds off sugars in the grape itself, but also uses about 50% of its water contained in the grape, so overall the grapes sugar concentration increases! Additionally acids are also consumed ( 5/6ths of the Tartaric acid in the grape is consumed). By products that are produced include glycerine ( the chemical which makes the wine feel viscous), acetic acidand a selection of enzymes. Phenolics of from the skins are also consumed so reducing the tannic structure.
Due to the reduction in water content of the grape the juice produced from Noble Rot infected grapes is low - often in the range of 15 hl/ha.
This wine is available from many retailers including Majestic at £20 or Ocado at £16.99 for a half bottle.
Score : 92

De Bortoli - how they started.
De Bortoli Wines is a third generation family wine company established by Vittorio and Giuseppina De Bortoli in 1928. The couple emigrated to Australia from Northern Italy, from mountain villages at the foothills of the Italian Alps, near the historic town of Asolo.

Their son, Deen De Bortoli, (b 1936 – d 2003) expanded and consolidated the business created by his parents. Deen's children continue De Bortoli's winemaking including icon dessert wine Noble One and the Yarra Valley wines.

This wine has been much feted with awards galore.

 

 

 

 

Chateau Doisy Däene 2ème GCC 2005

Chateau Doisy Däene 2ème GCC 2005 is one of those special wines that Bordeaux make so well, Sauternes, a sweetie which has been 'infected or affected' by Botrytis Cinera a 'good fungus'. The grapes are Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, and they have been harvested late in several 'tries' to make sure that only the best/infected grapes are used, so increasing the concentration within the wine!
The colour is deep gold with slow fat legs! On the nose - my first note is 'yummy'! honeyed, floral, tropical fruits incl mango and pineapple and there is a touch of gingery spice.
On the mouth - lusciously sweet, silky mouth texture and masses of concentrated tropical fruits - pineapple, mango, lychee, honeyed and rich with a savoury and pithy are also words that fit in with its character. The length - long and honeyed with those tropical fruits through to the end!
This is a classified growth - so quality was expected, but at the price of £17+ from Waitrose , seems a snip to me!
Score : 95

Botrytis Cinerea is a fungus that can infect grapes in the correct conditions, good rot is called Noble rot - the desired one ( the bad one - grey rot results in wiping out the harvest), there are areas in the world that this can happen naturally and one of these is the area around Sauternes and Barsac in Bordeaux left bank.The aszu wines of Tokaji wines are also produced having been affected by Botrytis Cinerea. It needs a temperate climate and ideally early morning mists ( off cool water) and sun later in the day so the grapes are kept dry in those autumn afternoons. Not all grapes will be affected, and some may take longer to mature which is why several pickings - called Tries- are needed to get all the grapes at thier ideal condition.
The fungus affects the skins and feeds off sugars in the grape itself, but also uses about 50% of its water contained in the grape, so overall the grapes sugar concentration increases! Additionally acids are also consumed ( 5/6ths of the Tartaric acid in the grape is consumed). By products that are produced include glycerine ( the chemical which makes the wine feel viscous), acetic acidand a selection of enzymes. Phenolics of from the skins are also consumed so reducing the tannic structure.
Due to the reduction in water content of the grape the juice produced from Noble Rot infected grapes is low - often in the range of 15 hl/ha.

Riesling Kappelweg Vendange Tardive 2000 by Rolly Gassmann

Riesling Kappelweg Vendange Tardive 2000 by Rolly Gassmann is supplied by The Wine Society priced at £35, it is a late harvest wine ( denoted by the Vendange Tardive) and can only be one of Alsace's 'nobel grape varieties' by their wine laws, these are Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat. The grapes are only harvested when they have fully ripened and more - and have started to dehydrate and shrivel on the vines so concentrating the flavours within the grape and so in the resultant wine. The grape has a high percentage of sugar and so the wine is often sweet as it cannot convert all the contained sugar to alcohol because the yeast cannot operate effectively at high sugar concentrations. This whole process is called 'passerillage' and was first introduced in France by the Alsace region and was first described as Vendange Tardive by Hugel in 1976. There is another higher sugar concentrated wine called Selecion de Grains Nobles and this has to have been infected by Botrytis ( the same nobel rot that affects grapes used to make Sauternes in Bordeaux and Trockenbeerenauslese in Germany ). The basic rule declares what minimium sugar level is needed in the grapes at harvest to reach these 2 levels of sweetness, it is higher for Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris than for Riesling and Muscat.
This wine has more colour than most rieslings due to its increased age and also the concentration of flavours and sugars it contains, the legs are slow to form and then fat - this tells me that the wine has increased viscosity, due to either alchol or sugar. On the nose we are treated to aromas of baked apples and pears, yeasty tertiary notes and a little mushroom, it also has a streak of minerality running around it.
On the mouth - Wow, silky texture, great acidity balancing the succulent sweetness backed up by baked stone fruits, sugary apple, all concentrated and honeyed. The length is good and clean, with a baked apple finish, and yes there is minerality, great structure and lots of clever fruit sugars, but the acidity, the freshness of this wine comes through - and it is at this point 12 years old - beautiful!

Chateau de la Chartreuse Sauternes 2006

Chateau de la Chartreuse Sauternes 2006
A really lovely sweetie from Bordeaux, made from the grapes sauvignon blanc, semillon and muscadelle, typical for this type of wine from the sauternes area on the left bank in Bordeaux, affected by noble rot or Botrytis Cinera, which gives it a characteristic aroma and taste of honey, oranges, apples, pears and a little butteriness. Golden in colour due to its oak maturation and thick and syrupy, it has plenty of acidity to make this luscious wine very drinkable - not sickly or too sweet, great with blue cheese, foie gras and even as an aperitif, for me - the wine that says christmas pudding to me!

A half bottle of this will set you back £15, but with the grapes low yield and the wonder of wether it will be affected by the botrytis fungi at all, the time in oak, the intensity of human picking time ( this needs to be hand picked with a number of times called 'tries' through the vineyard each time only taking the affected berries.....) one wonders why it does not cost more.
I love to sit after a long hard day with a small glass of fridge cool Sauternes before I start the evening meal, somehow the world seems a better place!