Leo Bueno > wrote in message >. ..
> I have seen photos of botrytized red grapes, so the bug does not seem
> to discriminate on the basis of color.
>
> On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:57:36 -0500, Mark Lipton >
> wrote:
>
> >Leo Bueno wrote:
> >
> >> It is not all together clear to me whether late harvest wines are
> >> necessarily made from grapes attacked by the Botrytis fungus.
> >> Intuitively, I suspect one can just pick the berries after they have
> >> shriveled or cracked from freezing but have not necessarily been
> >> attacked by the fungus. Enlighten me please.
> >
> >No, late harvest means just that: grapes harvested somewhere on the path
> >to becoming raisins (in the case of Recioto, perhaps all the way there).
> > It is certainly possible that they become botrytized, but that is a
> >separate issue. For instance, late harvest reds have never in my
> >experience had any botrytis character.
> >
> >Mark Lipton

I think it's half a dozen and six of the other.

Botrytis requires moisture; ideally dew or misty mornings, with
beautiful sunny afternoons to make sure that moisture doesn't rot the
grapes (becoming 'grey' rot which is not good).
Red wine regions, eg most of Italy, Spain, Australia are hot. The
grapes usually have thick(er) skins than white grapes because they
have to. Both these factors are not conducive to botrytis. Hence the
variations on the basic passito method (drying grapes by various
methods) is the norm for dessert wines in Italy for example.
There's few places in the world that can *consistently* obtain
Botrytis wines. Even the Loire, Sauternes, Tokaji, have 2, 3 even 4
vintages per decade without significant botrytis. Eg the much 2003
Sauternes might very well be great but will not be characterized by
botrytis.

Peter