Hardys 2003 Botrytis Semillon is 11.5% abv. and packaged in 375 ml. bottles. The wine is 18.2 brix at harvest and the wine has residual sugar of 210 grams per liter. The Hardys Winery in South Eastern Australia was established in 1853 and they have been making fine wines, including dessert wines, what the Aussies call 'stickies' for over 150 years. Their wines are made from premium grapes sourced from and grown in diverse areas and multiple vineyards then blended and crushed together depending upon the type and style of wine.
This is the second vintage of Botrytis Semillon released in the US by Hardys, following the 2005 launch of their 2002 Botrytis Semillon. In the near future I will do a vertical tasting of the two and compare them.
The color of the wine is a medium golden yellow, with a medium to full body with a nice, slightly syrupy mouth feel. It has that classic Australian "stickie" feel in your mouth, like many other fine dessert wines.
The aroma is that of a combination of a young dessert wine type of fruits, like green apple and one of the sweeter pineapple varieties such as a 'Gold' or a South African 'Victoria'; and more mature wine flavors like golden sultana raisins.
The taste is a melange of both young and mature wines, again with the afore mentioned pineapple and golden sultanas; as well as dried apricots, hints of figs, and honey, with a nice presence of botrytis, and carried by some slight oak.
The finish is medium to long lasting and very complex as all the flavors meld together.
This in excellent wine and at an approximate cost of $14.99 for 375 ml. it's a bargain as well.
The annual list of top wine brands by sales has just been released. No real surprises in so far as the top six remains the same as last year. The only French wine brand comes in at No 11 (JP Chenet). The biggest success over the last year has been the McGuigan range from Australia that saw a 420% rise in sales putting them in at No 31 in the Top 100.
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