What was the first wine made from botrytized (rotten) grapes?
A. Sweet Vouvray from the Loire Valley of France
B. French Sauternes
C. Hungarian Tokaji Aszú
D. German Trockenbeerenauslese
C.
Today, the Sauternes region of France is best known for these honeyed wines, but the practice of using botrytized grapes (those infected with the fungus Botrytis cinerea) to make unctuously sweet dessert wines actually began in Hungary’s Tokaj region around 1650. (By comparison, the first Sauternes is thought to be an 1847 Château d’Yquem.)
