> Review this wine
Otago Daily Times March 3, 2004, Charmian Smith, 4 stars: Oozes delicious apricot, honey and citrus marmelade overtones, supported by a lovely weight in the mouth and a surprising crisp, racy finish. It shows just what wonderful things happen to a wine affected by a little botrytis.
sommnet.com, February 2004, Keith Stewart,8/10: Colour of soft yellow straw. Aromatic, honey and orange-tinged nose is fine, slightly floral and very attractive. Soft zingy fruit sweet impact drifts into honey and a vibrant fruit and orange zest tingle in the mid palate. Succulent, supple feeling and long, drying slowly as its flavours drift off into a honey haze, fruit shadow. Stylish, neatly crafted, slightly muscular, sweetly tasty wine.
TIZWINE.COM, December 2003 New Release Tasting Results; Awarded Top Tip and Best Buy: Delicious wine, but be ready for a sweetie! Rich, full of botrytis, ripe, oily, perfumed, succulent, juicy - WOW!
Winemaker's notes:
Harvest: Hand harvested between April 23th and May 6th, 2003. Sorted and whole cluster pressed to tanks. Brix: 25.1-27 TA: 9.2-9.9 g/l pH: 3.03-3.14
Cellar & Bottling: Racked off gross lees after overnight settling. Fermented in stainless steel tanks to ~ 40g/l Residual Sugar. Chilled. Cold stabilised. Sterile filtered. Bottled on August 13, 2003. 214 cases (750ml x 12bt) RS: 36 g/l TA: 8.4 g/l pH: 2.94 Alcohol: 13.4%
Wine: In 2003 we had a lot of rain at the end of March - Riesling has thin skins and tight clusters which make it very susceptible to botrytis. So much of our Riesling was infected by botrytis that we decided to make only Unplugged Riesling. The fruit was left on the vines until it was very ripe and dry weather in April gave us a good percentage of dry "noble rot".
Careful pressing and handling has given us a wine with clean, concentrated flavours of citrus and marmalade and a luscious sweetness. This wine is bottled with screw caps to ensure the wine is in the best condition when you drink it. For more on screw caps and cork taint see www.screwcap.co.nz or www.corkwatch.com
