Villa Maria Reserve Noble Riesling Botrytis Selection is a sweet, decadent dessert wine that is made using the botrytis process. This process involves the fungus botrytis cinerea, which causes grapes to dehydrate on the vine, concentrating their sugar and flavor. The wine is crafted from 100% Riesling grapes grown in the pristine vineyards of Marlborough, New Zealand. The resulting wine is golden in color with aromas of apricot, peach, and honey. It has a luscious mouthfeel with flavors of candied fruit and spicy honey. The wine's acidity balances out its sweetness, making it a perfect pairing for rich desserts, blue cheese, or foie gras. Villa Maria Reserve Noble Riesling Botrytis Selection is a true delight for any dessert wine enthusiast.

Tasting Notes

Producing Botrytis Selection Riesling is comparative to the transition of an "ugly duckling" of dried Botrytis fruit into a "beautiful swan" of densely concentrated dessert wine. The 2016 Reserve Nobel Riesling offers candied citrus peel, toffee, apricot, honeysuckle and ginger spice on the nose. Fresh acidity and pithy phenolics create a deceptively lively and fresh palate. Flavours are layered with spice, florals, orange marmalade and zippy acid backbone.

About the Winery

Villa Maria is New Zealand’s most popular and most awarded winery today. George Fistonich was only 21 years old when he started this wine label. He got 5 acres of land in Mangere, Auckland, from his father, and set about to give wings to his winemaking passion. The very next year, he made his first wine from the grapes planted on this land, and he named the wine, Villa Maria.

For almost a decade, George managed this label almost single-handedly, with some support from his wife, Gail. He employed a blend of modern and traditional winemaking methods, and planted the grapes that Auckland’s soil allowed, to make his wines. Today, almost six decades after the company’s inception, you can find almost 250 people working in the wineries and vineyards. Close to 28 grape varietals are cultivated here. Villa Maria’s white wines find a presence in 60 countries across the globe today.

The grapes for Villa Maria wines are cultivated in some of New Zealand's most popular wine regions, such as Marlborough, Hawkes Bay, Auckland and Gisborne. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Pinot Noir are used for making red wines. For the whites, varietals, such as Chardonnay, Albarino, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Riesling and Pinot Gris are used. If you love organic wines, you will find them quite a lot under Villa Maria’s label. Marlborough and Hawkes Bay are some of the premium regions from where Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc are used for making organic wines.

Apart from red, white and rose wines, Villa Maria also offers other categories of wines, such as sparkling wines, dessert wines, aged wines, open the cellar wines and organic wines. All of these are highly popular among wine lovers in New Zealand and across the globe. The vineyards are carefully chosen for growing different varietals that reflect the nature of the rich terroirs.

https://www.villamaria.co.nz

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