What Are Fortified Wines?
Fortified wines are regular grape wines that have been given an alcohol boost using grape spirits. While this does produce a high alcohol wine that isn’t the whole story and it isn’t why this practice began.
The real reason fortified wines came into being was to solve stability issues in finished wine. Sherry is believed to be one of the earliest fortified wines which may have been produced as early as 1260 AD. Port came about a little later, during the 18th century.
Today we use sulfites and tight sealing closures to protect our wines. Back then the closures were not nearly so effective and they didn’t even know about all the tiny micro organisms we worry about today. Both of these factors would have made wine stability a much bigger deal. Continue reading “How to Make Fortified Wine”