Noble Rot - The Martinez News Letter
Current Edition: Spring 2019 Edition
Download PDF:
NOBLE_ROT_SPRING_2019_WEB.pdf (2.0 MB)
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 our shop?
Previous Editions
Noble Rot Winter 2018 (5.0 MB)
Noble Rot Winter 2017 (5.3 MB)
Noble Rot Winter 2016.pdf (1.1 MB)
Noble Rot Winter 2015 (404.8 KB)
Noble Rot Autumn 2015 (497.3 KB)
Noble Rot Spring 2015 (194.9 KB)
Noble Rot Winter 2014 (2.5 MB)
Noble Rot Summer 2014 Edition (467.2 KB)
Noble Rot Spring 2014 Edition (415.4 KB)
Noble Rot Winter 2013 Edition (907.5 KB)
Noble Rot Summer 2013 (313.1 KB)
Noble Rot Christmas 2012 (2.1 MB)
Noble Rot Summer 2012 (1.3 MB)
