12/11/06 Fortified Wines

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and today we are answering questions from the email. A listener asked, "Can you explain what fortified wine is?" This is the time of year that we give receive and consume more fortified wines than at other times of the year. Your first clue as to what fortified wines are is the word fortified. It tells us that they obviously have some sort of a boost. A fortified wine is a wine to which a distilled spirit usually a grape based alcohol is added during the winemaking process. This practice arrests the fermentation prior to all of the grape sugars conversion to alcohol, resulting in a wine with more sugar and a higher alcohol level. Port is a perfect example of a fortified wine. The differing levels of sweetness are a result of the amount of sugar remaining in the base wine at the time the fermentation is halted. This is accomplished with the addition of a cognac or brandy, which is distilled wines, contributing to a higher alcohol or fortified wine. To distill a wine - the base wine is heated and the alcohol, which boils at a lower temperature than water, vaporizes. Those vapors are collected to make a very high alcohol drink. Thus, the distilled spirit is what fortifies the wine. Remember to send your questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.