The Auswine Forum

Beside Noble 1, any other excellent botrytis I should be looking at?

p/s.disliked fortified, the spirit taste is too strong.

Thanks

Hi sweettooth,
keep an eye out for some of the 2002 stickys especially the 02 Miranda Golden botrytis which is a really smart drink for the money. The key too good stickys in australia is to get the balance between acidity and sweetness right. If you don't they won't go anywhere and will fall down within a few years.

Also Brown Brothers Patricia Botrytis and Vasse Felix also make pretty handy versions.

cheers
anthony

Hi there

Can heartily agree on the Vasse Felix, generally very good.
Have not tried the B.Bros.
Grosset Noble Riesling is also worth trying. Can be excellent!

For sparkling in the same vein, try the Chandon Cuvee Riche. It is a favourite of my generally non-wine-drinking wife.

Also worth a look are some fortifieds which don't really have much of a spirit taste, such as a good Pedro Ximinez spanish sherry, or some of the Rutherglen muscats. Some are just like concentrated raisin sugar. Hard to say which ones exactly, though - - sorry!

Cheers

Steer clear of the d' Arrenberg Botrytus Reisling. Got 96+ points from he who must be obeyed, but tasted like burnt organge marmalade sieved through a sock; not exactly subtle.

My advice is to look at the secondary market for good vintages of Sauternes/Barsac at a comparable price, esp the 375's.

JM

London Correspondent wrote:Steer clear of the d' Arrenberg Botrytus Reisling. Got 96+ points from he who must be obeyed, but tasted like burnt organge marmalade sieved through a sock; not exactly subtle.

My advice is to look at the secondary market for good vintages of Sauternes/Barsac at a comparable price, esp the 375's.

JM

Yeah, had a few bottles of D'Arenberg Botrytis Riesling, perhaps 98? There weren't any nasty burnt/sock characters. It was just like liquified raisins, too sweet for me.

Seppelt DP57 Show Tokay in the 375ml bottle is sublime - you'd have to have be particularly sensitive to it to even notice the added brandy. Yum!

daz

Henschke produce the most underrated botrytis semillon in the country.

They have a botrytis riesling too, on occassions.

It is about the same price as Noble One retail.

Definitely Miranda Golden Botrytis

For something a bit different try Yalumba Botrytis Viognier and Seppelt Botrytis Gewurtztraminer. Both delicious in their own sweet ways.

The McWilliams Ltd Release Bot. Semillon is very much a show style but an enjoyable wine nonetheless. Drinks best with about 2 -3 years bottle age.

I'm with Jamie - the two Henschke's are lovely. I prefer the lighter Riesling to the richer Semillon. The Patricia from Brown Bros is very intense but nonetheless excellent if you like that style.

Miranda Golden Botrytis
De Bortoli Noble One (02 is good)
Westend 3 Bridges Golden Mist
McWilliams Riverina Botrytis Semillon
Crawford River Necktar
Petaluma Essence
Pipers Brook Cuvee Clarke (is this botrytised?)
Mt Horrocks Cordon Cut is pretty smart too, but it's not botrytised. Ditto Wellington Iced Riesling.

Kieran

Great call on the Westend Three Bridges. Easily the most consistent producer since its release in 1995.

It is not as overblown as some of the others can get. Extremely well balanced wine!

Cookathooma, is also great and relatively new on the sceen.

Try, Chambers Botrytis Tokay, Jeir Creek, Primo Estate, Plantagenat. For some different styles away from botrytis semillon from Griffith.

De Bortoli Noble One 1999 - rich luscious golden colour, good acid balanced not cloying and deliciously seductive marmalade fruit going from nose carrying through to palate and going on forever.

Cant recommend anything better so far this year - know its a big call

Sorry but its hard to beat De Bortoli at this game.

Kieran wrote:Pipers Brook Cuvee Clarke (is this botrytised?)
Kieran

Not the 2003 I tasted at CD 6 weeks ago. Pleasant wine, light in style, fresh. Worth about half the $39 (375ml) asking price.

cheers,
Graeme

Try any of the Lillypilly Estate bot wines from ROb Fiumara, they are always interesting, and he has a range of different varieties

Some I have tried in the last week are,

Campbells - Late Harvest Tokay 1999

Unique flavour and extremely well made. Not sold on it yet but a nice change.

Carramar Estate (Casella) - Botrytis Semillon 2000

Another great wine from Griffith. Incredible legnth and balance. A complete desert wine for a snip.

Coriole - Botrytis Chenin Blanc 1998

Bought this years ago and forgot about it. I had some when it was released and thought it was good. So much better now! Still has much of the acidity that it started with. It has become more rich and honeyed but still nice and fresh.

Mount Prior - Noble Gold 1997

Good quality but really nothing special. Not as delicate as many others. Big obviouse but never the less quite nice.

Trentham Estate - Noble Taminga 1996

More late harvest than botrytis I think. It probably peeked some time ago.

Nederburg (South Africa) - Edelkeur Botrytis Late Harvest Chenin Blanc 1995.

Wow! What a wine! This was a real eye opener. So complex, so much legnth. Easily one of the better desert Chenin Blancs I have had outside of the Loire. It is a wine I could have kept much longer.

Peller Estate (Founders Series) (Canada) - Late Harvest Vidal 1997 VQA

Another nice wine from over the seas. A gift from a Canadian mate. Thank you I say. Different to anything else I have had lately it was similar to a late harvest riesling but with some aditional characters. It had more weight and more fruit. Delicate and fresh it was probably easier to match with food than many of the Australian examples.

All of these are worth a look. There are more of these style than many will realise.

marsalla wrote:
Try any of the Lillypilly Estate bot wines from ROb Fiumara, they are always interesting, and he has a range of different varieties

>>>yep mr marsala is right. Fiumara's muscat of alexandrina is damn delightful drop.

The other De Bortoli sticky "Black Noble" is pretty stunning. A fantastic wine for the big wine tastings when palate fatigue has taken over.
Similar price to Noble One.
Ian

Not that I would ever let the stuff pass my lips but the Miranda Golden Botrytis rates highly amongst my associates even to the point where it's compared to the Noble One.

If anyone doubts that, maybe try a little blind tasting some time where the labels don't influence you and you may be surprised.

For something different you could try and track down some of Charles melton's vin santo style Sotto di Ferro. Really hard to get a hold of and rarer than most anything except the super Aussie cult wines. MIne are stashed away as Charlie reckons they could do with some bottle age.

-- George Krashos

707 wrote:Not that I would ever let the stuff pass my lips but the Miranda Golden Botrytis rates highly amongst my associates even to the point where it's compared to the Noble One.

If anyone doubts that, maybe try a little blind tasting some time where the labels don't influence you and you may be surprised.

IMO the Miranda Golden Botrytis is one of the best value wines made in this country. This can often be found for less than $12/half bottle. And yes, comparable to Noble One. The better vintages also age just as well.

mphatic wrote:

707 wrote:Not that I would ever let the stuff pass my lips but the Miranda Golden Botrytis rates highly amongst my associates even to the point where it's compared to the Noble One.

If anyone doubts that, maybe try a little blind tasting some time where the labels don't influence you and you may be surprised.

IMO the Miranda Golden Botrytis is one of the best value wines made in this country. This can often be found for less than $12/half bottle. And yes, comparable to Noble One. The better vintages also age just as well.

It makes me sound curmudgeonly, but I don't think either of these wines is 'as good as they usta be.' The last really good vintage of the Miranda was the 95 (which is still drinkable today, but starting to wobble). I think Noble One lost the plot somewhere in the early 90s. The 80s vintage wines are excellent - I had an 87 last month which was far better balanced than the 96. They just don't have enough acid to keep from being flabby. The same criticism applies to nearly all local botrytis stickies. I don't know why - is it something to do with the way the botrytis is artificially encouraged, perhaps?

Even the McWilliams is thick and syrupy. I'd love to taste the Grosset (wonder if riesling does better with botrytis than semillon?), but I don't think he's made one since the 99 vintage, and I seem to remember reading as less-than-raving note about that lately.

The best Oz stickies I tasted consistently were Hardy's 94 Padthaway 'Beerenauslese', which was rich but fresh, and d'Arenberg's 92 Botrytis Riesling, a wine festooned with gold medals, but which none-the-less drank very well up to around 1999.

As far as Australian botrytis wines go generally, I think declining levels of acidity are compromising a) these wines' ability to age, and b) their freshness when young.

Admit I haven't tried the Henschkes. May have to make the effort. Do they have any brett?

cheers,
Graeme