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Learning About Fortified Wines
A fortified wine has a distinct distillation process which gives the wine higher alcohol content, usually 14% or more, than your typical red wines or white wines. Additional alcohol is added during the fermentation process.
Fortified wines can either be sweet or dry, depending on when the extra alcohol is added to the fermentation. If you add the alcohol within the first day and half, the results will be a sweeter wine. Wood casks are used to age a fortified wine. The less time it has spent aging, the cheaper the wine.
The most common types of fortified wines are Sherry, Port, Madeira, and Marsala. They are also known as dessert wines. Sherry comes from Spain and can be either light or dark, dry or sweet. Port comes from the city of Oporto in Portugal and is always red wine. Madeira wine also comes from Portugal and is typically used in cooking, but very well crafted Madeira can be for drinking. The best ones are aged for several decades. Marsala wine comes from Sicily and is used more for cooking as well. Perhaps you’ve enjoyed some chicken Marsala at an Italian restaurant? It can be either sweet or dry.
Although it depends on which type of wine you are drinking, most taste good with cheeses, nuts, fruit tarts, cream-based desserts, and chocolate desserts.
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Posted on: Monday, December 6th, 2010 at 9:00 am
Posted in: Kosher Wine
Tags: baron Herzog, bartenura, laurent perrier rose, online wines, red wines, rose wines, white wines