WTN: d'Arenberg SauvBlanc F*ckeliana '11..(short/boring)

WINE TALK
1

We tried last night at BBB:

  1. d’Arenberg SauvBlanc The Noble Botryotinia f*ckeliana AdelaideHills (10.6%; SaH: 43.2 Brix; RS: 18.73%;
    www.DArenberg.com.Au; L12010C) McLarenVales/SA 2011    : Deep gold color; very intense botrytis/apricotty/peachy slight alcoholic bit pickle juice/volatile slight oak complex nose; tart very sweet very intense botrytis/peachy/apricotty light oak slight pickle juice bit earthy some complex flavor; very long/lingering slight pickle juice very sweet slight tart/volatile/alcoholic intense botrytis/peachy/apricotty/fruit cocktail finish; a pretty good botrytis wine at a very good price. $16.00/hlf (BB)

A wee BloodyPulpit:

  1. On the back label, it stated that Botryotinia fckeliana is the spore that is responsible for botrytis cinerea, the noble rot, that creates such great dessert wines.
    My immediate reaction is this is just the irreverent ChesterOsbourne jerking us around, managing to get a lewd term on his label and thumbing his nose at the labeling regulatory authorities.
    Well…turns out that Google indicates ole Chester didn’t make up this factoid. It is actually the name of that spore, named after a mycologist Karl Wilhelm Gottfried f    ckeliana.
    But I’m certain that ole Chester was laughing on the inside when he got that label approved.
    The wine was a pretty decent example of a botrytis wine. It would never be mistaken for a Sauternes and not as good as some of the Oz botrytis Semillons. I find that some botrytis SauvBlancs show a bit of a pickle juice character. I recall a MontereyVnyds botrytis SauvBlanc of DickPeterson’s that turned into a horrible mess of pickle juice wine after about 10 yrs. Still have a hlf btl of it.
    Tom
2

That’s great. Love Chester.

Here’s a link to their page on this wine, including a video of Chester talking about it:

http://tinyurl.com/ld2kf3x

I had to use Tiny URL because the SW here censors even the url.