2009 "Oley" Late Harvest Viognier

We are incredibly excited about the 2009 Oley Late Harvest Viognier! The weather was, in many ways, perfect for production of a late harvest wine. One day of rain in mid-September led to a large number of inactive botrytis spores just waiting for another rain to take off. This other rain showed up in mid-October, in a big way, with over 6 inches falling over a few days. Botrytis started in earnest and, while this isn't positive for most grapes, this type of rot makes for remarkable, sweet, white dessert wines. We picked the 2009 Novy Oley on November 1, 2010 at 40 brix. The wine was pressed, very gently, into a tank and then fermented using a yeast isolated from the Sauternes region of France. We stopped the fermentation by adding SO2 at 10.5% alcohol and approximately 20% residual sugar. The 2009 Novy "Oley" Late Harvest Viognier is simply the finest dessert wine that we have produced. Rich, somewhat thick, with peach, apricot, honey, and spice flavors, but finishing with crisp, refreshing acidity, this is one of our favorite wines of any type from the 2009 vintage. Grandma Novy (Oley) would have loved this wine!