any1 know a good dessert wine ?, page-10

History of the Noble One

Darren DeBortoli developed Noble One Botrytis Semillon during the 1980s at the family winery at Bilbul in southern New South Wales.

In 1982 Darren graduated from Roseworthy Agricultural College Australia's premier wine teaching institute. During Darren's years there, Roseworthy was doing a lot of development work in botrytis wine styles. Botrytis cinerea is a fungus which given the right conditions develops on grape bunches, the botrytis spores leach moisture from the berries causing the fruit to break down, concentrating the sugars and magnifying the flavours to produce a wine of intense richness. Botrytis is responsible for many of the great sweet whites of Europe including Sauternes and Darren quite literally fell in love with the style.

On returning home fired with enthusiasm he decided to attempt to make a botrytis affected wine of his own. There was a precedent. In 1958 another company in the area had produced a Pedro Ximinez wine which was acknowledged to have been botrytis affected and Darren's father Deen had attempted to make a similar wine in 1972. This wine however developed into a heavily madeirised style.


Semillon, a thin skinned, tight bunched variety is particularly susceptible to extensive, uniform botrytis infection and in 1982 there was a surplus of semillon grapes. The growers were delighted to be able to sell their "rotten" grapes left hanging on their vines.

The resulting wine created a sensation when it was released, it was picked in blind tastings as Sauternes, and went on to win international acclaim and a swag of gold medals and trophies including Best Botrytis Wine at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in 1984. Subsequent vintages were also successful with the exception being 1989 when heavy rains totally destroyed the crop.

During the 1980s, Darren experimented with Spaetlese, Auslese and Beerenauslese styles with Riesling and Gewurztraminer. He also made Botrytis Pedro, Dry Botrytis Semillon, and set aside wine each vintage that was fortified and then aged in barrels, this fortified botrytis was released as "Black Noble". A component of the Black Noble was the original batch of botrytis Pedro Ximinez made by Deen De Bortoli in 1972. Apart from Noble One, the only wines the company has persevered with have been Rare Dry Botrytis Semillon and Black Noble.

Noble One was given its name in 1990 as a result of the bilateral agreement between Australia and the European Economic Community in which Australia agreed to phase out the use of European names on wine labels (previously the wine was known as "Sauternes").



Viticulture and Winemaking

Extremely high levels of botrytis infection and the extraordinary sugar levels (with Baumes between 20 and 25 degrees) are what make Noble One so unique. High humidity and moderate temperatures during April/May when the grapes are picked and the high clay content of the soils creates a microclimate that is perfect for the development of botrytis in the Riverina. Grapes for Noble One are grown on De Bortoli's own vineyards and those of a handful of selected growers. The grapes are handpicked and the juice from each vineyard is fermented separately.

The high sugar level presents a challenge during processing as the yeast struggles to ferment the juice making fermentation a long drawn out process. The fermentation has to be closely monitored because at these sugar levels acetic acid is produced. Acetic acid adds complexity but can spoil the wine if allowed to become too high. Extreme care also has to be taken to ensure the wine does not oxidise.

Once fermentation is completed the wines are clarified, stabilised and then aged in French oak for an average of 12 months before blending and bottling.

With more than two decades of experience in making Noble One from the vineyard through to oak maturation, the De Bortoli winemaking team sets the benchmark in Australia and is amongst the best in the world at producing botrytis styles. Winemaker Julie Mortlock is the current custodian of Noble One.