Keith Tulloch Botrytis Semillon

Called a "Sticky" in Australia this delicious Sauternes-style wine is a bright golden yellow, with vibrant green freshness. Beautifully concentrated with velvety, mouth-filling flavor notes of honeyed apricots, kumquat and crystallized clementine. The palate is sweet and rich with concentrated exotic fruit layers offset by deliciously bright and refreshing acidity that cuts through the sugar.

This wine, a 2012 Botrytis Semillon from Keith's Hunter Valley winery was rated 95 points by James Halliday (the 'Robert Parker' of Australia) and was sold out immediately it became available. Luckily we were able to save enough just for our Bill's Cellar Club.

Botrytis Cinerea, (or Noble Rot) is a little fungus that concentrates the sugars in grapes on the vine. It's a temperamental little thing, requiring very specific weather conditions to develop. The damp, dewy mornings, typical of a few very specific sites in the Hunter Valley, and warmer, drying afternoons are required to produce world-class sweet wines - like this one.

Amazing as an aperitif or try it with a Camembert cheese and a selection of crackers. Serve chilled 45°F to 50°F in small glasses or in a chardonnay glass.

Don't like sweet wine - wait for it - take a small sip, hold it and swallow slowly. Watch how the acid in the wine moves across the palate offsetting the sugary sweetness and leaving you with the same glow that the wine shows on the glass.