Botrytized wine
/bəˈtraɪ.taɪzd waɪn/
A botrytized wine is a sweet wine made from grapes intentionally infected with the fungus *Botrytis cinerea* under conditions that create “noble rot,” concentrating sugars, acidity, and flavors. This process produces richly textured wines with intense sweetness and complex aromas such as honey, apricot, marmalade, and spice, typically used for dessert or contemplative sipping.
Examples
- Sauternes from Bordeaux (e.g., a Semillon–Sauvignon Blanc blend) made from botrytized grapes, showing honey, apricot, and saffron notes.
- Tokaji Aszú from Hungary, where individually selected botrytized berries (aszú) are added to must or wine to create a deeply sweet, long-lived dessert wine.
- German or Austrian Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) Riesling, produced from heavily shriveled, botrytized grapes, yielding tiny quantities of intensely sweet, complex wine.
Etymology
“Botrytized” is formed from the genus name *Botrytis* (specifically *Botrytis cinerea*), the fungus responsible for noble rot, plus the English suffix “-ized,” indicating something that has been subjected to a process. *Botrytis* derives from Greek “βότρυς” (*botrys*), meaning “bunch of grapes” or “cluster,” referring to the grape-like clusters of fungal spores, while *cinerea* comes from Latin “cinereus,” meaning “ashy” or “ash-gray,” describing the mold’s appearance. The adjective “botrytized” entered English wine writing mainly in the mid–20th century as a standardized technical term for wines whose character depends on beneficial *Botrytis* infection, replacing longer phrases such as “affected by noble rot.”