Botrytis – Page 2 – All about sweet wines

Tokaj’s Late Harvest from yellow muscat

26. January 202321. January 2023 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Yellow Muscat © CIVR Jean-Marie Goheynex

Sárga Muskotály, also known in this country as Yellow Muscat, is a grape variety permitted for production in Tokaji. It gives the wine a strong aroma and a balanced acidity.
Most sweet Tokaji wines are aged for at least two years. Since the 1990s, there has been an increasing number of Tokaji wines that have been matured reductively, i.e. wines that are matured largely without contact with atmospheric oxygen. These wines are already 12 – 18 months after the harvest on sale and are mostly offered as Late Harvest (in Hungarian: Késői Szüretelésű).

Esszencia – Top category of the Tokaji wines

2. June 20253. August 2022 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Vineyards in Tokaj © Pecold – Fotolia.com

It was a very generous birthday present from Hans, Szepsy’s Tokaji Esszencia 1999, which we tasted together with other friends a few weeks ago. Esszencia, not Aszú Escenzia, is the top category of sweet Tokaji wine. You can see that from the fact that it is made from the so-called flow must of the grapes, which is created by the own weight of the grapes, which are in steel

Château Climens – 1er Cru des Barsac

18. September 20214. September 2021 by Karl-Heinz Datum

After exquisite Rieslings and various very good Pinot Noir, Hans served a Barsac 1er Cru 2001 from Château Climens at the end. The AOC Barsac corresponds to the area of the municipality of Barsac, one of the five municipalities of the Sauternes appellation. However, the approximately 400 hectares of the Barsac appellation are located west of the Ciron, opposite the four other Sauternes communities east of the Ciron. Barsac, lying flat on a plain sloping towards the Garonne, … Read more ...

Scheurebe TBA from the steep slope specialist

16. July 20214. July 2021 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Wine landscape near Durbach © erge Pixabay

The Ortenau is known to many because of the local Riesling clone, called Klingelberger. Also in Durbach, north of Offenburg, many locations are planted with it, including at the local Durbach winegrowers’ cooperative, from which the wine tasted today comes, a 2013 Trockenbeerenauslese from the Scheurebe from the Steinberg location. A grape variety which can be

More sweet wines from Keller

11. July 202024. June 2020 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Hans had invited to taste sweet wines (Tasted Wines), most of them from Klaus Peter Keller. More information about Winery Keller.

Scheurebe Spätlese 2010, Keller
Very round fragrance, orange, apricot, very nice balance of sweetness and acidity on the palate, spicy herbal notes, very harmonious, very good wine

Piquant Balance – Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese of Schloss Lieser

14. April 202011. April 2020 by Karl-Heinz Datum

In 1992 Thomas Haag started as cellar master at the Schloss Lieser winery, and the winery is in his possession since 1997. Over the years he has steadily developed it into a top Moselle winery. His wines prove this even more than all the winery’s awards. Around 17 hectares of vineyards in steep locations are cultivated, around a third of which are in the Lieser Niederberg Helden location, the rest are in the Lieser Schlossberg, Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr, Brauneberger Juffer, Graacher Himmelreich, Graacher Domprobst, Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Bernkasteler Doctor sowie Wehlener Sonnenuhr.

Australian Semillon – “Special sale dessert wine”

2. March 202117. February 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

The winery De Bortoli was founded 90 years ago by Vittorio De Bortoli, who emigrated from the Italian Treviso to Australia. The winery became known beyond Australia only in the 1980 years with the Noble One Botrytis Semillon, produced in the family-owned winery Bibul in Riverina. Today, the De Bortoli family own wineries with around 820 hectares of vineyards in the Heathcote, Hunter Valley, King Valley, Riverina, Rutherglen and Yarra Valley.

The tasted wine, the Family Reserve … Read more ...

Szamorodni èdes – the “small Ausbruch”

21. January 201927. September 2018 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Wineyards in Tokaj © Pecold – Fotolia.com

Szamorodni, a word of the Polish language means “as grown”, which means in this case, that for these wines, the grapes are harvested as they are currently on the vine, so not only the berries infested by noble rot are selected, as it is the case with the harvest for the Tokaji aszú. Whether the so-harvested bunch of grapes produce the dry Szaomordni száraz or the sweet Szamorodni édes depends largely on the percentage of grapes infested by Botrytis (noble rot), because those have a higher sugar content than ripe grapes. The main part of the harvested grapes

Sigrun Noble – noble rot from Marlborough

3. January 202324. August 2018 by Karl-Heinz Datum

The fact that first-class dry Sauvignon Blanc is produced at Marlborough on New Zealand’s South Island only became known at the end of the 1980s, when Cloudy Bay‘s Sauvignon Blanc became a cult wine. Sensitivity to botrytis makes this grape variety a suitable candidate for sweet wine, as does the Riesling. If the microclimate is right, there is a body of water like river or lake nearby, so wet fog can develop with its humidity, but quickly dry off … Read more ...

Sweet Viognier from down under

21. January 20199. July 2018 by Karl-Heinz Datum

There are more than 60 wine growing regions in Australia, I suppose in this country only few fans of Australian wines know more than a handful of these regions: for example Shiraz from McLaren Vale or Barossa Valley or Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra.

In addition to the well-known sweet, alcohol-fortified Rutherglen wines, there are also wines, whose grapes are harvested with Botrytis. We have a sweet Viognier wine from South Australia, whose name FSW8B Botrytis Viognier 2015 already … Read more ...

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