Art Chowder January | February, Issue 25 | Page 42

F
ortified wines capture savory sweet wine flavor like no other wine.  Like many of you, I also
wish that fortified wine meant that it had more vitamins and minerals — that enjoying it after
dinner revealed massive fat-burning Keto benefits.  Maybe those studies come out next year.
Truth is, fortified wines have been around as long as we have been able to distill liquor;
“fortification” simply means that the wine has been bolstered by the addition of brandy.  They can
be made sweet (usually) or dry depending on the winemaker’s intention.  Plus, if you needed your
wine to travel a long distance without refrigeration, fortification filled this need. 
Adding brandy creates two conditions.  First, it overpowers the yeast gorging themselves on the
grape’s sugars to convert them to alcohol.  The resulting “fortified” wine retains the same level of
sweetness remaining at the moment the brandy was added.  Therefore, adding the brandy early in
the fermentation renders a sweeter fortified wine, adding the brandy later makes a “drier” fortified
wine.  Port and the dark sherries usually add early; lighter colored sherries and madeiras add later.
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