Waimea Bolitho SV Noble Riesling 2004
Produced By Waimea Estates
Tasting Notes
The 2004 Noble Riesling is undoubtedly our most lush ‘sticky’ to date with very high residual sugar and intense flavours and complexity – Botrytis influence is clearly evident. Musky citrus, marmalade and subtle oak all feature on the nose. Mouthfilling sweetness is balanced by good acidity and a lower alcohol, resulting in a wine of distinction and character. Sublime with blue cheese.
Winemakers Notes
After prolonged pressing times to gently extract the juices from the raisined berries, the must was cold settled, fined and racked. After careful racking to stainless steel, the must was inoculated with a German yeast strain which favours the ester-y characteristic of Riesling. The fermentation lasted several months and was maintained at cool temperatures, ranging between 13-15°C, ensuring strong varietal aromatics in the finished wine.
Viticulture Notes
The 2004 season was kind to the aromatic varieties in that it was long and generally cool, allowing slow accumulation of flavours. Some weeks of warmer weather around the Christmas / New Year period helped boost physiological ripeness and ensured our Riesling developed excellent flavours and concentration. Potentially damaging rainfall during late April dampened the spirits here at the winery, but ironically this rain was just the thing for our 10 allotted rows of Annabrook Riesling which, earlier in the season, had been deliberately sprayed with botrytis spores to encourage sporulation.

Due to the humid conditions at the beginning of April, and the long dry spell that followed, the infected grapes ‘raisined’ nicely, concentrating the sugars and the flavours in the berries. The fully botrytised fruit was hand-harvested towards mid-winter (18th June) well after all the leaves had dropped, with Brix levels in the range 36-50°. The most raisined fruit (at 50°Brix) was kept separate for our Noble Riesling, and the balance went into our Late Harvest Riesling.
When the sugars and alcohol levels were deemed in balance, the fermentation was stopped, and the wine racked off its gross lees to mature further in seasoned French oak. Over the following summer, the wine was stabilised, fined and filtered and was finally bottled in June 2006. Only 188 cases of six were bottled.
Technical Details
Vintage: 2004
Variety: Dessert Wine
Region: Nelson
Alcohol: 7.5%
RS: 310 g/l
TA: 7.65 g/l
pH: 3.92
Waimea Bolitho SV Noble Riesling 2004
TiZwine Accolades
RatingRatingRatingRating
Wow - a sugar bomb! The beeswax aromas are followed by rich, intense, extremely concentrated fruit. Certainly sticky and cloying and would go well with something like Pecan Pie.
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