Botrytized Wines: A Review

Botrytized wines are the sweet wines made from grapes that have been botrytized with the fungus Botrytis cinerea Pers. (B. cinerea). This fungus grows on grapes and are responsible for causing Botrytis bunch rot and/or grey mould rot in many vineyards around the world. Under specific climatic conditions fungus produces pourriture noble or noble rot which is a desirable stage for the production of botrytized wines from these infected berries. The infection has been found to cause dehydration of the grape berries along with other significant modifications like skin-cell degradation, glucose degradation and generation of glycerol and aromatic compounds. During rotting aromatic compounds have been found to be highly modified and lead to the formation of characteristic compounds like 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2-furanone, furfural, benzaldehyde, phenylacetaldelyde and benzyl cyanide which are known for their distinctive aroma. To exploit the higher concentration of various chemical constituents including sugars the sweet white table wines are produced commercially from these infected berries. The botrytized wines are rich source of polyphenolic antioxidants which provide various health benefits to the cosumers.