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Alluviale Anobli 2008 375ml The bottle must have been sitting in the fridge for a couple of weeks now; still fresh as a daisy. The importer, Eurocentric, tells me it contains 270g of natural sugar and 11.5g of (natural) acidity! Opens with a little sulphur and a trace of sweaty grassy Sauvignon but the weight and concentration of the fruit blows it away - honey, pineapple and passionfruit syrup cut with plenty of strong but fine acidty. It’s a wine of enormous intensity, sweetness and flavour with a lengthy finish. I think it should age pretty well, although I’m not certain. Drink : 2010 - 2018 Rated : 94 Points - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front Alluviale Anobli is created from 100% botrytised grapes grown in the Aorangi Road vineyard, Mangatahi. This area has a reputation for producing high quality white wines from the Bordeaux white varieties Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon and other aromatic whites. When conditions permit, grapes infected with ‘pourriture noble’ are harvested with incredibly high sugar levels, concentration and flavour intensity. While the area experiences warm temperatures during the day in summer and autumn, the nights are normally a lot cooler as a result of the elevation and proximity to the mountains. This great diurnal shift results in wines of remarkable purity. From time to time during Autumn, morning fog comes up the river valley and spreads over the vineyard. This results in a botrytis infection of the grapes. Providing this is followed by dry weather, the resulting grapes are suitable for making an ‘anobli’ ie considered ‘noble.’ The risk however is that should the infection period be followed by wet or humid conditions, the resulting grapes are unsuitable for harvest. Picked by hand, the grape clusters for Alluviale Anobli are transported in small bins to the winery. The clusters are then placed in a traditional one tonne basket press and pressed using an extremely long slow cycle. Extraction of the juice can take up to 48 hours. The juice is then settled, racked and fermented in a combination of stainless steel and French oak barriques. Typically a long fermentation of up to 3 months takes place. After the wine has matured on fresh lees for 8 months it is racked and receives minimal fining and filtration prior to bottling.