Noble rot

The Clairvoyant and I love sweet wines and there is always a bottle of a dessert wine in our home in Singapore either opened and currently being enjoyed or waiting to be opened even without an occasion to celebrate. While we have tasted wines together and individually in various venues, I think we fell in love with dessert wines after a good friend of my brother-in-law introduced us to Botrytis. He was hosting us one day in his Antipolo home and was relating about their family's vineyard in Australia. They have won many prizes for their wine but he was quick to point out one in particular that he said was quite difficult to produce because it required a certain species of grapes to develop an infection. The infection, termed the Noble Rot, is actually a fungus called Botrytis cinerea and one can read about it here. Our group consumed that bottle of Botrytis in one sitting and it was perfect with the cold cuts and cheese. Since that time, we tried to find Botrytis in Philippine stores but couldn't find a bottle of the Australian product.

It was in Singapore that we finally found a good supply of Botrytis, Botrytis Semillon to be exact. From what we found, two brands carry this sweet wine - De Bortoli and Wolf Blass, both originating from Australia. Below is the photo of a bottle of Noble One from De Bortoli that we usually buy at Changi Airport, where it is significantly cheaper than in Singaporean stores. We take advantage of our frequent trips between Manila and Singapore to get our bottles duty free. The other bottle is a dessert wine produced in Napa Valley, California in the USA. It is a late harvest wine that 

De Bortoli's Noble One and Castello di Amorosa's Late Harvest Gewurztraminer

Botrytis Semillon appears conspicuously in the Noble One label and this particular brand is fast selling in Singapore.

We actually have another bottle of the Noble Rot variety at our home in Singapore. After doing a little research, we found that the French produce the sweet wines under the name Sauternes. These are produced in the Bordeaux region of France, which is famous for its excellent wines. I discovered bottles of Sauternes at Changi while shopping for red wine as a gift to a friend back in Manila. It is supposed to be difficult to produce and thus tends to be more expensive. I decided to purchase a bottle upon my return to Singapore and it is still unopened a few months after.

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