Fortified wine

“Fortified” is the cellar word for adding spirits. U.S. wine identity does not use that word as a class. It splits the idea.

Table wine is grape wine not more than 14 percent alcohol by volume. Dessert wine is grape wine more than 14 percent and not more than 24 percent ¹. Grape wine with no added grape brandy or alcohol may also be called natural ¹. So a 15 percent wine is dessert wine by alcohol even if nobody added brandy — the class is ABV, not a postcard of a lodge. Many of the named types, though, do require added spirits.

Dessert wine that tastes like sherry, with alcohol derived in part from added grape brandy or alcohol and not less than 17 percent by volume, may be designated sherry. Angelica, madeira, muscatel, and port need that same added-spirits derivation and not less than 18 percent. If the wine has the character but sits below those floors (still above 14 percent, still with added brandy or alcohol), the designations are light sherry, light port, and so on ¹. Those are U.S. type names. An AVA still only names where the grapes grew ². The amount of spirit and the production method vary by style and region.

Aperitif wine is a different class: wine not less than 15 percent alcohol, compounded from grape wine containing added brandy or alcohol, flavored with herbs and other natural aromatic flavoring materials, with or without caramel for color, tasting like aperitif wine. It shall be so designated unless it is vermouth, which is the aperitif type with vermouth character ¹. Herbs are identity here, not a garnish.

Wine fermentation still made the base. Adding spirits stops yeast and raises alcohol; Residual sugar often remains because the ferment was arrested or the wine was sweetened. Aging wine in barrel is optional chemistry, not a requirement of the class. Sulfur dioxide remains a separate microbial and oxidation choice.

What to notice #

On Tasting wine: heat of alcohol, often sweetness, sometimes oxidation (nut, dried fruit) that is style in some sherries and a fault in a table wine. A bitter herbal line is aperitif, not dessert. Failure: calling any sweet wine “Port.” Failure: assuming 14.1 percent ABV means brandy was added.

Grape is still the fruit. Shared metabolism is Fermentation. Return to Wine.