In this experiment to use the alphabet as our guide in a journey of discovery through the world of wine, we have encountered Botryitis Cinerea previously. Week H (2013) featured Harslevelu, one of the great Hungarian grapes used in the production of Tokaji. In that case, the process of making the sweet version of the wine is quite complicated and involves taking the grapes affected by 'Noble Rot' (the welcome results of the work of the fungus Botrytis Cinerea which is not to be confused with 'Grey Rot', its unwelcome stable mate) and grinding them into a paste to be added to wine fermented to dry. This week we have a more straightforward dessert wine.
Week S (2014) is De Bortoli, Hermits Hill, Botrytis Semillon, Riverina, NSW. 2009
Marks & Spencer £8.49 37.5cl.
This wine is made for M&S by the De Bortoli winery with nobly rotted Semillon grapes grown in Riverina. This is an area of New South Wales, towards the border with Victoria, where the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers provide the irrigation to enable diverse forms of agriculture to flourish, including viticulture.
The climate in Riverina is one of long warm days with heavy morning dews and occasional showers and this is exactly what our friendly fungus enjoys. De Bortoli also produce 'Noble One', in Riverina, another dessert wine made from botryitis affected Semillon grapes that has regularly won awards at competitions all over the world and, whilst this week's wine is not this, there are some strong similarities.
The wine is a golden lemony colour and is lusciously sweet, without being too sticky. The flavours have the typical complexity of a botryitised wine, with peaches, pineapples, warm citrus and ripe melon leading the fruits, developing into caramel and barley sugar notes. It is only 11% abv, so not too heavy at the end of a meal.
We drank it chilled with a zesty orange sponge pudding and this worked well.
Semillon is something of a signature grape for Australia, especially the Hunter Valley, also in New South Wales, where the combination of heat and humidity suits the development of Noble Rot. But it is also one of the classic Bordeaux grapes being, with Sauvignon Blanc, a major contributor to the region's white wines of Graves and Entre-duex-Mers. And it is a major component of another of the world's greatest sweet wines from that part of France: Sauternes, which itself has cousins in Barsac, Monbazillac (in the nearby Dordogne) and elsewhere.
Would I add this week's wine to the regular list? Yup. De Bortoli's Noble One is about two and half times the price and this is a very acceptable, enjoyable and economical alternative.
Marks & Spencer £8.49 37.5cl.
This wine is made for M&S by the De Bortoli winery with nobly rotted Semillon grapes grown in Riverina. This is an area of New South Wales, towards the border with Victoria, where the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers provide the irrigation to enable diverse forms of agriculture to flourish, including viticulture.
The climate in Riverina is one of long warm days with heavy morning dews and occasional showers and this is exactly what our friendly fungus enjoys. De Bortoli also produce 'Noble One', in Riverina, another dessert wine made from botryitis affected Semillon grapes that has regularly won awards at competitions all over the world and, whilst this week's wine is not this, there are some strong similarities.
The wine is a golden lemony colour and is lusciously sweet, without being too sticky. The flavours have the typical complexity of a botryitised wine, with peaches, pineapples, warm citrus and ripe melon leading the fruits, developing into caramel and barley sugar notes. It is only 11% abv, so not too heavy at the end of a meal.
We drank it chilled with a zesty orange sponge pudding and this worked well.
Semillon is something of a signature grape for Australia, especially the Hunter Valley, also in New South Wales, where the combination of heat and humidity suits the development of Noble Rot. But it is also one of the classic Bordeaux grapes being, with Sauvignon Blanc, a major contributor to the region's white wines of Graves and Entre-duex-Mers. And it is a major component of another of the world's greatest sweet wines from that part of France: Sauternes, which itself has cousins in Barsac, Monbazillac (in the nearby Dordogne) and elsewhere.
Would I add this week's wine to the regular list? Yup. De Bortoli's Noble One is about two and half times the price and this is a very acceptable, enjoyable and economical alternative.
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