Botrytis

[boh-TRI-tihs sihn-EHR-ee-uh] Also called noble rot, this beneficial mold develops on grapes under certain environmental conditions. The mold causes the grape to shrivel, concentrating and intensifying both sugar and flavor. Most winemakers are exhilarated when noble rot descends on their grapes because it gives them fruit from which to make very elegant, intensely flavored dessert wines. In California these wines are usually referred to as late harvest wines and in France, where noble rot is called pourriture noble, they're known as sauternes. In Germany noble rot is called Edelfaule, and German winemakers are experts at producing a large variety of elegant botrytis-infected wines such as trockenbeerenauslese and some beerenausleses.

Botrytis may refer to:

• Botrytis, the anamorphs of fungi of the genus Botryotinia
  • Botrytis cinerea, a mold important in wine making
• Botrytis, the cauliflower cultivar group of Brassica oleracea

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)