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Established in 1998, Dee Vine Wines is a small, if you will, “boutique” wine shop that specializes in imported wines from Germany, France, Spain.
The technical name for this most exotic of all moulds is “Botrytis Cinera” but it’s also called “Noble rot”. Yes, it is indeed one of the wine world’s true paradoxes. Yet, for about the past 200 years or so, winemakers who deal primarily with white grapes have discovered it to be at times very advantageous.
It is a mould that is stimulated to attack grape skins when precisely the correct combination of heat and moisture (from fog or dew) are present in a vineyard. Its profound influence on a Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, or Semillon grape, for example, results in a late harvest wine of considerably greater complexity. However, in a year such as 1976 in Germany, the by-product of extremely high temperatures during most of the growing season, botrytis can get out of hand and be evident even in Kabinetts, which is considered a defect.
“Noble rot” nees to occur later. Otherwise, as the wines mature, they begin to exhibit an unsavory bitterness in the finish, and let’s face it, the finish is what we remember most wines by. On the other hand, when botrytis is in perfect harmony with ripeness, the result is utterly magical. Vintages such as 1947, 1949, 1953, 1967, 1971, and 1976 are exemplary.
So botrytis, or as it is sometimes affectionately called in the trade, “Bo-didly”, can transform a ripe grape into another dimension, resulting in deep golden colors and exotic spice aromas.