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Noble Rot, what's that?
 You've
read the name often enough but there's quite a few Martinez
customers who aren't sure what it means... Noble Rot, or
botrytis, is a fungus that attacks the skin of grapes under
certain conditions. These tend to be when a damp and misty morning
is followed by a hot sunny afternoon. The grape skin shrivels
without splitting, concentrating the juice inside and giving
the resultant wines a rich almost marmalade-like character.
Once tasted the flavour of botrytis is never forgotten. While
the world's greatest dessert wines are produced from grapes
affected by Noble Rot, in all truth it's more of a destructive
condition than anything. Botrytised wines account for a small
percentage of the market, so when grapes intended for dry wines
are affected they are very difficult to use for anything but
sweet wine and are often discarded. Imagine a powerful Claret
with botrytis character! Its unthinkable! And despite noble
rot being associated with sweet wine a few growers ferment the
sugar to dryness, which makes for a very unusual sensation.
We stock a variety of botrytis affected wines at Martinez...
why not ask about them next time you're in one of our shops? |
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