Fortified Wine

Where it started

Fortification began as a way to protect wine on long sea voyages to distant markets; today it is used to steer the style of ageing.¹ Madeira's baked character came from casks warming in ships' holds as they crossed the tropics, later copied on the island with heating called estufagem.² Marsala began in 1773, when Liverpool merchant John Woodhouse fortified Sicilian wine to imitate sherry.³

Where and how it's made

There are two main approaches. In Port, grape spirit is added during fermentation, usually one part spirit to four parts must-wine, which kills the yeast and leaves the wine sweet at 19 to 22 percent alcohol.⁴ How sweet depends on when the brandy goes in.⁵ Madeira does the same with neutral wine alcohol at 96 percent, and the finished wine runs 17 to 22 percent.⁶

In sherry, the wine ferments fully dry first and is fortified afterward: to 15 percent for wines that will age under flor yeast, to at least 17 for wines that will age with oxygen.¹

U.S. law calls wine above 14 and up to 24 percent alcohol dessert wine, and requires the alcohol on any label above 14 percent.[^cfr4.21][^cfr4.36] Under the federal standard of identity, an American dessert wine may be designated port or madeira at 18 percent or more and sherry at 17, and weaker versions above 14 percent may be designated light port or light sherry.[^cfr4.21] Under 26 USC 5388(c), though, a branded U.S. wine may use port, sherry or madeira only if its producer held a label approval for that brand, showing the name, before 10 March 2006.⁷

Ageing then takes over. Port divides into ruby styles, kept from oxygen to hold their deep red color and fruit, and tawny styles, aged in wood until they turn amber with dried-fruit and nut aromas.⁵ Sherry ages either biologically under flor, which protects it from air, or oxidatively, which darkens it; the traditional system is criaderas y soleras.⁸ Madeira is heated, by estufagem or by slow canteiro ageing in warm lofts, and its acidity lets it last beyond two hundred years.⁶

How to taste it

Smaller pours in a white wine glass. Serve white Port chilled, ruby Port at 12 to 16°C and tawny at 10 to 14°C.⁹ Opened bottles last differently: Vintage Port 1 to 2 days, tawny 3 to 4 weeks.⁹ Pairings: blue cheese with Port, salted almonds with fino, pecan pie with Madeira.

Styles and what the label means

• Port — sweet, fortified mid-fermentation, from the Douro. port →
• Sherry — dry or sweet, fortified after fermentation, from Jerez. sherry →
• Madeira and Marsala — heat-aged island wine and Sicily's fortified classic. madeira-and-marsala →
• Dessert wine (U.S.) — the legal class from 14 to 24 percent.[^cfr4.21]