The dry autumn produces a sweet English vintage
By Robert Uhlig, Food Correspondent
(Filed: 06/12/2001)

THE warmest and one of the driest autumns on record has enabled English winemakers to produce their first ever "noble rot" dessert wine.

This method uses botrytis mould to produce a sweet, sticky wine in the style of a Sauterne. Chardonnay grapes often struggle to ripen in Britain, but the mild autumn has allowed winemakers to leave the grapes on the vine for an exceptionally long time. The grape-picking finished at Meopham Valley vineyard in Kent on Sunday.

Yesterday, Roy Cook, who is processing the grapes at Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard near Robertsbridge, East Sussex, said global warming might lead to noble rot dessert wines being produced as often in southern England as in south-west France. He said:"Chardonnay grapes often only just ripen in Britain, but the opposite has happened this year.

"Noble rot wines are produced when botrytis fungus attacks the grapes, removing water and leaving each withered berry holding a single drop of highly concentrated, sweet cloudy juice." Mr Cook said it was "an enormous gamble" to leave the grapes on the vine until December.

He said:"The crucial time was the end of October and beginning of November, when a cold snap would have wiped out the entire harvest. If it had been as wet and windy as last year, we could have lost the lot."

Although they have been making wines for 20 years, the winemakers are so unused to picking grapes in December that they have had to consult Dr Uwe Hoffman, a leading German viticulturalist. Mr Cook said: "He is an expert at making Trockenbeer-Enauslese, a highly sought-after dessert wine, so we are relying on him to tell us what to do with these rotten, shrivelled up little berries."

The wine will be fermented in French barrique oak vats and bottled next spring. It will go on sale in December 2002 for about £20 a half bottle. Mr Cook said: "The botrytis method produces only about one twentieth as much wine as you would normally get from a chardonnay grape. But what you do get is exceedingly sweet."