Quails' Gate Estate Winery Late Harvest Botrytis Affected Optima 2018

Jennifer Havers rated this wine as 91/100 with the following review:

A lovely dessert wine! Aromas are more tropical with hints of mango, guava, honey, and ripe peach. Full bodied and luscious on the palate, with lots of stone and tropical fruit, and a honeyed finish. Enjoy with blue cheese or a fruit tart.

Deborah Podurgiel WSET IV Candidate rated this wine as 92/100 with the following review:

Too decadent for words, but I’ll try. The winery has been making this Botrytis Cinerea-affected dessert wine for over 25 years. It just seems to get better and better. The Optima grapes are grown at the base of the winery close to the lake which nurtures the micro flora (noble rot) Botrytis Cinerea. Flavours are so concentrated on this Sauterne-style dessert white. Unctuous, intense and weighty with orange marmalade, apricot compote, lush peach and stone-fruit flavours on the palate matched with vibrant acidity balancing the whole, finishing very long with apricot jam, orange marmalade and soft vanilla flavours. It is dessert! But try it chilled with blue-veined creamy cheeses, dark chocolate paté, candied orange rinds dipped in dark chocolate.

This vintage awarded Platinum, Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence