De Bortoli’s Noble One is now firmly established as an Aussie icon. Since its first vintage in 1982, it has established a strong reputation as a complex botrytised sweet wine that has the capacity to age beautifully. This, the 2006 vintage, is just beautiful. It’s the second time I’ve drunk it, with consistent notes.
De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon 2006 Australia
10% alcohol. Very rich, bold fruit here: peach jam, fine cut marmalade and lemon cordial jostle for space with spicy complexity and good acidity keeping things fresh. Lovely concentration: it’s viscous and mouthfilling, yet beautifully balanced. Finishes very sweet with some syrup notes. With this much sugar and acidity, this will live a long time, especially seeing as it is screwcapped. 93/100 (£14.99 Oddbins, Majestic, Waitrose for 37.5 cl)
Agree this is a wonderful wine, and having had Noble One at 20 years of age can attest to its ability to age well. On a completely different matter, but following on from other posts, I was in my local this morning and saw a BOB Central Otago Pinot for $AUS 10 a bottle in case buys. (About 5.80 Pounds.) Tasted pretty good too with good colour, bright cherry aromas and good length. A basic Beaujolais here starts at $20 and this trounced it. But I couldn’t buy it – completely immoral to treat growers like this.
Somewhere in the far past I remember drinking a dry botrytised semillon from De Bortoli. IS this still produced or was it one of those one off, freak of nature wines, that doesn’t appear regularly?
Yes, it was available in Tesco a while back – my note:
De Bortoli’s All Rounder Semillon 2002, from the Riverina region, £6.99 Tesco. This is utterly remarkable stuff. It’s a more-or-less dry botrytised Semillon, with 9.5 g/litre residual sugar. The nose is incredible: complex apricot, lime and spice with some sweet melony notes. It smells like a really good Sauternes. The palate is just off-dry, with complex lime, herb and vanilla notes. Concentrated and intense, this is an incredible wine, and a complete bargain.
I’ve never really “got” this wine, but thereagain I struggle with quite a few sweet wines – particularly from the New World (vin de Constance is another one).