(Decanter) - Scientists believe they have pin-pointed how different types of mould can affect the flavour in some of the world's best sweet wines, from Sauternes to Tokaji. 

Scientists in Germany have worked out why Botrytis cinerea is the noblest fungi affecting wine grapes. And they did it without tasting a drop of Sauternes or Tokaji Aszú.

Botrytis cinerea – also called bunch rot, grey mould and noble rot – increases the wine’s aromatic compounds, producing a more fruity, floral and toasty white wine.

Using wine produced from healthy and botrytis-infected Riesling, Roter Riesling and Gewürztraminer grapes, and healthy and powdery-mildew-infected hybrid Gm 8622-3, the researchers analysed the odorants in each sample and then got a panel of 10 sniffers, who had been trained for six months to recognise 90 odours, to rate them.