Ice Wine

FORTIFIED WINE Is a wine to which additional alcohol (usually brandy) has been added.  These include ports, sherries, marsalas, and madieras.  Vermouth is a fortified wine but is usually considered a spirit. Fortified wines were born of the need to protect wines on long sea voyages. Sailors found regular wine spoiled, but adding brandy kept them from going bad. Once at their destination, these wines were often preferred because of their higher alcohol content, robust flavors and firm texture.  So, the wines have continued to be made long after the need for fortification was necessary. These wines contain between 17 and 21 % alcohol. They are more stable than ordinary table (9-11 %) wines and less likely to spoil once they have been opened.          PORT True port comes from Portugal’s Douro Valley, and the seaport of Oporto.   However, the term port is now applied to other wines made in the style.   Many grape varieties are used in port. · Ruby port is a blend from several harvests, different years and different vineyards.  It spends at least two years in large vats. Ruby is ready to drink when it is bottled and has a rich red colour and a full fruity taste. · Tawny port is also a blend of several harvests but is aged for two to seven years in smaller casks.  Thise allows more oxidization than the vats used for Ruby ports. It is ready to drink as soon as it is bottled.  Tawny port has a deep mahogany colour, with a drier and nuttier taste. ·Aged Tawny is the best Tawny port.  It can have an average age of 10, 20, 30 or more than 40 years.  The age on the label is the average age of the wines in the blend. In a twenty-year-old Tawny, there may be ports 100 years old to add a complexity to the wine. Aged Tawny port has a refined, subtle taste. ·Colheita A colheita (pronounced "call yay ta" which means "harvest") is a Tawny port made with grapes from a single harvest. It is aged at least seven years in casks - or "in wood" - but is usually aged much longer. The label indicates the year of the harvest. ·White Port have a lighter taste and vary from quite sweet to very dry. The sweetest are called lagrima.   SHERRY True Sherry comes from Jerez de la Frontera, in Southern Spain.  The term “sherry” is also applied to sherry style wines made outside of Spain.  Made from white Palomino and Pedro Ximenez grapes.  Sherry has a unique blending system called a solera.  This consists of rows of small oak barrels stacked upon one another - by year of harvest. The oldest is at the bottom and the most recent at the top. The wine ages as it makes its way down.  Each year 1/3 to 1 /4 of the oldest wine is drawn from the casks at the bottom, newer wine is moved down from the barrels above to replace it. The newest wine is placed into the barrels at the top. This system keeps the sherry consistent from year to year.     There are four styles of sherry · Fino  is covered by a film of yeast (flor) during aging, keeping it free of oxygen.  The finest of sherries, it is pale, delicate and dry. Finos should not be aged. Best served chilled.   Manzanilla sherries are very dry, delicate finos with a hint of saltiness, from the seaside town, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where they're made.  Alcohol content is 15.5% and 16.5%. · Amontillado is an older fino, richer in character with a soft copper or amber color -alcoholic content of between 18% and 20%.  Considered a medium sherry, with a distinctly nutty flavor. Sometimes labeled milk sherry, amontillados are aged longer than finos and are typically sweeter, softer and darker in color.  · Oloroso is a rich dark dry mohogony wine with a full rich nose.  Often labeled cream or golden sherries  Oloroso is not aged under flor and is left exposed to air, and aged longer becoming more concentrated than fino. Oloroso sherries are sweet, fuller flavored and darker in color than dry or medium sherries.  The alcoholic content is 21%.  Often labeled cream or golden sherries.  Drink sweet sherries at room temperature. · Cream sherries are a blend of dry Oloroso and sweet Pedro Jimenez  (an intensely sweet, raisiny sherry made from the grape variety of this name). Cream sherries are dark rich wines with a soft sweet finish. The alcoholic content of these wines are generally 20% - 22%.    MARSALA Marsala is a fortified wine from the western coast of Sicily. Using the Grillo, Inzolia, and Catarratto white grapes, Marsala is made  much the same way as Port wine. Thick, generally somewhat sweet and with an alcohol level that varies between 17 - 20%, the best examples of this wine have a dark, brownish red color.   These wines always have the marked aroma of caramel. The majority of Marsala is used for cooking.   MADEIRA Madeira, the most elegant and complex of all fortified wines Madiera, is from the Portuguese island of Madeira.  One of the most long-lasting wines in the world, amazingly old Madeiras, dating back to the 19th century, are still available. The wine was a favorite in the American colonies and the wine used to toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Madeiras has a unique processing method. The barrels of wine are stored several months in buildings called estufas, at temperatures as high as 100° to 140° F. Much of the distinct flavor of Madeira is due to this practice, which speeds the wines mellowing.  The wine is also exposed to air, causing it to oxidize. The wine has a color not unlike a tawny port.  The alcohol content ranges from 18-20 %.

DESSERT WINES Legally, in the United States, dessert wine refers to wines of 14% alcohol or greater. They are often sweet wines such as Eiswein ( ice wine), French Sauternes and  Hungarian Tokaji Aszú ( botrytized wines), Beerenauslese, Bermet, Trockenbeerenauslese, Commandaria and Frambroise (infused fruit wine) Eiswein- (ice wine in German) is made from grapes harvested and pressed while frozen.   Typical grapes: Riesling Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc, and, the red Cabernet Franc . The Icewine harvest, done by hand, starts once the temperature drops below - 10 to -13 degrees C and the grapes have frozen on the vines. Icewine must be naturally produced. No artificial freezing is allowed. The freezing and thawing of the grapes dehydrates the fruit, concentrates the sugars, acids, and extracts in the berries, thereby intensifying the flavours and adding  complexity to the wine. Icewine grapes yeild is about one-fifth the amount of juice you  get from unfrozen grapes. A vine will normally produce enough grapes to make a bottle of wine -  frozen grapes will produce one glass of Icewine If you want to cellar an ice wine choose one made from the Riesling grape. Other wines that are popular are dessert wines are honey/mead based wines and fruit wines – the most popular being frambroise – which is made with Raspberries.  Bonny Doon Framboise describes itself as - boosted with brandied fruit that brings it to 17% alcohol; gooey in raspberry essence with chocolate dust.