20. Taking a Look At The Vast World of Fortified Wines

Hello and welcome to The Wineitupanotch Podcast, a podcast where we talk about wine, life and everything in between.

My name is Anshu. I'm your host, and I'm thrilled that you've decided to join me today. Thank you so much for doing so!

Welcome to Episode 20 of the podcast!

It's been a busy day for me today. I've been running around and to be honest, I have not had as much sleep in the last couple of days as I probably should. I feel like there's just so much going on right now and I think this is kind of a common thing, isn't it? We get sort of wrapped up in all that there is to do and then sleep always seems to fall by the wayside. I've been trying to prioritize sleep a little bit more. I feel like I've been trying to do that for years, to be honest, and for some reason it always seems that that's the first thing to go. 

I also do tend to be a little bit of a night owl, if I'm honest. It's kind of a habit I've had since I was really young, so to try to kick it is even harder. I feel like if I think I'm going to try to sleep more and I'm going to prioritize sleep, as soon as there's an opportunity not to, my inclination is not to. 

So I guess I kind of bring this on myself, but I'm definitely a little more tired today! 
Now, some of that is due to sleep and lack of sleep. But the other side of that actually has to do with the fact that if you've been listening for a little while, you'll know, I am doing formal wine studies and I'm in the middle of my WSET Diploma, which is kind of the level four of this pretty advanced program in terms of studying wine. It's about as far as you can go with this particular organization and it is a LOT!

And we just finished two units which were focused on Viticulture and viniculture and we didn't really take a break - we moved right into fortified wines and sparkling wines. And so we moved from what I consider to be highly theoretical content around how grapes are grown and how they're fermented and fermentation temperatures and fermentation vehicles, aging, maturation, all of those more technical terms to now actually getting into specific wines. But we are jumping in with two feet fully into fortified and sparkling wines! 

Of these two categories, sparkling wines are quite well known to me and a category that I really love and rather enjoy learning about. But fortified wines are a little bit of a struggle for sure, just because it's not a category that I tend to drink all that much of. Now, having said that, I do drink fortified wines. It's just not something that I'm choosing on a regular basis. 

And in fact, one of the things that we're learning is that that's kind of a common phenomenon - that is, that over the years, and certainly in the recent past, people are not choosing fortified wines as much as they used to. And I don't want to call it a dying category, but it's a category that is definitely thinking about the younger consumer and the new taste buds and preferences around wine and how to stay current and relevant.  

So all of this made me think, hey, why don't I do a quick episode about fortified wines? Because to be honest, until I really started getting into studying this category, I maybe wouldn't have even been able to tell you necessarily what a fortified wine was. I might have been able to give you some examples just because I know them, I've tried them before. But as I said, it's just not something that a lot of people drink. 

So, hey, I figured why not? I'm learning. I'll share it with you too. 

So let's start with what fortified wines are. If they sound a certain way, it's because that's exactly what they are. Fortification or "fortified" simply means that the wine has been bolstered with the addition of additional alcohol. So typically wine is made by taking grapes and fermenting them through a process, essentially to generate alcohol. And you can ferment to dryness, meaning you take all the sugar out in the process of turning it into alcohol - or you can leave some sugar behind which we refer to as residual sugar. Both of those options are available. 

But in the case of fortified wine you can have both a dry style of fortified wine or a sweet style of fortified wine. But in both of those cases, in all cases with fortified wines, the amount of alcohol in the wine has actually been bolstered through the addition of some sort of a spirit and usually it's a grape based spirit. This is the fundamental concept of a fortified wine. So it is a wine, it is a beverage that is made based on grapes in a typical process that would be normal for a dry, still wine. However, somewhere along the way, additional alcohol has been added, and that really gives these particular wines a much bolder, a much more alcoholic, profile. 
They are definitely higher on the alcohol scale, so the alcohol by volume for these wines starts at 15%, and that's really considered to be the low end, and it can go all the way up to about 22%. They are definitely heavier drinks and not drinks that you're going to drink in the same volume that you would drink typical still or sparkling wines in. 

The other thing to know about fortified wines is they are made around the world in a range of different styles, but they are not made everywhere in the world, nor are they made from all of the grapes that are available to us in the wine world. They tend to be made in very specific parts of the world. Mind you, there are quite a few, and I'm not going to go through all of them today. I'll just name some of them. Maybe I'll come back and do another detailed episode about the specific areas that you learn about in the WSET Diploma. 

While the number of areas that these wines are made in is numerous, it is not anywhere near the breadth or size of the wine world in general. There are specific areas, I would say, that it seems mostly for historical reasons, have been producers of fortified wines, and they continue to be. And there are some areas that are very, very popular for their fortified wines and others that maybe the common consumer doesn't know quite as well. 

And the grapes, too. There are hundreds and hundreds of grapes available in the wine world, but I find that there's just a handful that seem to keep appearing in the most commonly made and consumed fortified wines. Common grapes are grapes like muscat for an aromatic fortified wine. There are the grapes of the Port (Porto) region. These are the grapes that are used to make port, They come from Portugal from around the Duoro Valley. 

In France, as another example, they use Grenache in some parts. 

So those are some of the more common grapes that I'm finding are appearing in the fortified wines of the world, or at least the ones I've been studying. Now, having said that, like I said, there's always exceptions to the rule. Madeira is an example of a fortified wine that uses completely different grapes, more or less, than other places in the world. 

And Sherry is another style of fortified wine that uses very specific grapes that are not necessarily used in other regions in the world. All that to say, though, that when you start studying the category, there are specific areas of the world and specific grapes that keep popping up and that you need to know really well. 

Now, let's talk a little bit about examples of fortified wine in case this is not something that's completely common in your vernacular. 

Styles of fortified wine that are commonly known and that you would likely see when you go to a bottle shop or a restaurant are probably the following:

Sherry is one example and sherry can be made in both a dry and sweetened style. And even within the dry style, there are two or three very distinct categories of Sherry. Sherry is probably actually a topic in and of itself, but it's good to know that if you see sherry, it is a fortified wine, it is lower in terms of fortification, generally speaking, and you could be getting a sweet or a dry wine. And even if you feel you're getting a dry wine, there's a range of styles that you may be getting. So it can be really a fascinating topic to explore. And sherry happens to be one of the styles of fortified wine that I really enjoy. 

The other rather common style is Port and port is by nature a sweet wine. So it will always be sweet and it is actually made by stopping fermentation and then keeping the sweetness of the grapes and adding additional alcohol to bring it to the level that it needs to be. 

Now, the thing to know about Port is there are also lots of categories of Port. So if you ever decide that you want to dabble in Port and it's not a category, you know all that well, it could do you some good to do a little bit of research to know what the various styles are and what you might be getting. 

The price points also vary wildly, For example, if you're getting a young, say, Ruby or Tawny port versus a vintage port or a Colheita Port, they're going to be quite different, both in price point and in style. And I did actually do an episode, another introductory level episode, on Port wines, which I will link the show notes. If you want to go back and listen to that, that'll give you a good primer on Port.  

Another style of fortified wine that is to me becoming a lot more interesting is Madeira. 

Madeira is both an island and the name of a style of fortified wine that is produced not that far off the coast of Portugal. Actually, I shouldn't say not that far. Madeira is in fact rather far out, but is considered to be one of the islands associated with Portugal. And these are really interesting wines. They've got a really long history. These wines tend to have a little bit more of a cooked (they call it a "madeirized") character, which I find really fascinating. I'm just starting to learn more about them. They can be made in a sweet and dry style as well. And there's a range of grapes that can be used to make Madeira. 

Then there is Rutherglen Muscat, which comes from Australia, and this is quite a specific category. It is very much a sweet wine made in a very specific style. And the Australians are very famous for this wine. It comes from a specific area in Australia. We don't get a lot in my marketplace here. I do remember having had some when I was in Australia. Definitely I'd consider it to be more of a specialty or niche product. So if you can get your hands on it, it can be really interesting to explore. But probably not, I would say, necessarily high on the list of fortified wines that you want to try. 
There are also Vins Doux Naturels wines coming from really, the southern part of France, so the Languedoc-Roussillon-Southern Rhone area. And these tend to be based on Grenache or Muscat. And they're generally sweet. They are made in a sweet style, more or less all the time. Again, not a category I have a lot of experience in, and one I'm trying to find more examples of and learn a little bit more about. And I will probably come back and do a little bit of a deeper dive on this region because I think it's fascinating. I think it is actually quite a popular category in Europe and in France, in the UK and maybe other parts of Europe, but here in Canada, it's not a category that I have a lot of experience with, unfortunately. 

Another example of a fortified wine that I'm really starting to enjoy is actually Marsala. I really do enjoy this particular category. I've had it on occasion when I'm out for dinner. It is an Italian fortified wine and it's really excellent. I think it's a little bit easier to find, tends to be a sweeter style when you're at a restaurant. It's often served as a post dinner drink, but it's also made in a dry style as well. And I actually have two examples that I'm hoping to taste soon enough and maybe I'll come back and do another episode on those two wines. 

Specifically in terms of maturation of these wines or when you consume them - again, this is very dependent on the particular style of fortified wine we're talking about. Some are made for early consumption. They're not even necessarily aged very long before they're released from the winery. Others are aged for long periods of time at the winery, but are meant to be consumed once you have them in your hands as a consumer. And others still are somewhere in the middle. Maybe they've been aged for some time at the winery, but they're actually intended to be aged in bottle, for example, a vintage port kept in the hands of the consumer. And they have a very, very long life and they're outstanding wines for cellering and enjoying in time. 

So again, like all things in the world of wine, nothing is that simple or easy. Everything, if you're a wine geek like me, is super interesting, for sure, and there's always lots more to learn! 

But I hope that this particular episode has given you a little bit of insight into what fortified wines are. If this is a new category for you, maybe this has piqued your curiosity. 

Be sure to go check out the episode that I did on Port wines if that's of interest to you. Reach out to me if you want to know more about this category, since I'm studying it and exhausted from studying it, it seems to be all I'm thinking about! I'll surely be back and do a couple more episodes on fortified wines. 

But in the meantime, if there's something specific that comes to mind that you've heard on this episode or that you want to know more about, you know how to get in touch with me. 

You can find me on social media, drop me an email, send me a DM at any time. I always love to hear from you.
 
I wish you a wonderful day, lots of peace, love, lights, and of course, great wine. Until next time. See you later!