Chapter 25 Fortified Wines Flashcards
What are the main characteristics of Fortified Wines?
Sherry:
A fortified wine produced around the town of Jerez de La Frontera in southern Spain. Many styles: starting point is a simple dry base wine made from Palomino. Once fermentation is complete alcohol is added to fortify the wine before it enters the solera system. The solera is a system of old oak casks containing wines of different ages…..the wines are continuously blended together and as they age …..ensuring a consistent and complex style of wine.
Dry Sherry Styles
Three most important: Fino, Oloroso and Amontillado.
Fino ages under a thick white layer of yeast known as Flor. Known as biological ageing. A Fino is typically pale lemon in colour with aromas of apple almonds and pronounced flavours derived from the Flor…..biscuit and bread dough.
Olorosa doesn’t involve Flor. Instead the dry base is fortified to around 17% abv, a strength a which Flor cannot survive. The wine ages oxidatively…..in contact with oxygen. The wine becomes brown in colour and develops dried fruit flavours and notes of deliberate oxidation……walnuts and caramel.
Amontillado is somewhere between Fino and Oloroso…..it ages under Flor for a period of time, then is fortified to 17% abv……this kills the Flor and allows the wine to age oxidatively until it’s bottled. Amontillado sherries are notably deeper in colour than Finos and have flavours from both Flor and oxidative ageing.
Sweet Sherry Styles
The term Pale Cream signifies a sweetened Fino. The terms Medium and Cream are often used for sweetened Amontillado or Oloroso sherries. PX (Pedro Ximenez) is a sweet sherry made from white PX grapes that have been concentrated by sun drying. The wine is fortified and aged oxidatively in the solera, thus resulting in a wine almost black in colour, sweet with pronounced dried fruit flavours. PX is often used as the sweetening component in Cream Sherries.
Port:
Port is a sweet fortified wine produced from grapes grown in the upper Douro region. Made from a blend of local black grape varieties……most Ports are a blend of wines from several vintages. The winemaking process: after harvest, rapidly extract colour and tannin from the skins…..traditionally by foot treading. Fermentation is interrupted by adding grape spirit…….this kills the yeast, stopping fermentation resulting in a wine which is sweet and high in alcohol. Matured for a short time prior to blending and bottling.
Styles of Port:
Ruby styles are deeply coloured and fruity. After fortification they spend a period ageing in large vessels before they are bottled and ready to drink. The vessels are large old oak casks, though stainless steel is sometimes used. They have flavours of cooked black fruits and sometimes black pepper. Inexpensive Ruby ports are generally sweet, simple fruity wines with lower tannins. Reserve Ruby Ports use better quality wines with greater flavour intensity….often matured for longer than Ruby Ports…to soften and integrate the added alcohol. Late Bottled Vintage Port is similar in style to a Reserve Ruby but contains wine from a single vintage.
Vintage Port is made from the highest quality wines from a single exceptional vintage. It is high in tannins and has very concentrated flavours. Has the potential to mature in the bottle for 20 years and sometimes much longer. Colour changes over time from ruby to garnet and the wine develops complex tertiary aromas. Will need decanting before serving. Not made every year and Port producers only declare a Vintage Port in the best years.
Tawny style Ports are so called due their tawny colour. The best of these wines develop their colour from extended oxidative ageing in small barrels. Oxygen attacks the colour turning it from ruby to tawny and it develops complex notes of dried fruit and tertiaries of walnut coffee and caramel. Wines made this way have an age indication…..10, 20, 30, 40……however inexpensive wines labelled Tawny Port are simple fruity low in tannin and pale in colour.
