Drinking History - Fortified Wines

We stumbled on to a surprisingly action packed history when we started exploring fortified wines. First, we were just looking for an intelligent way of explaining to our readers pre-dinner and post-dinner drink names (Apéritif & Digestif) and discovered that there was a whole category of wines that fell under the umbrella that is fortified wines. We found sometimes surprising and often exciting stories of exploration and revolution that involved these wines. Clearly, pirates were involved here somewhere, too. They can always be found where there’s adventure on the high seas!

If you’ll allow us to stray from our lighter fare, we’d like to share the theme that emerged. We had taken for granted how convenient our modern food delivery system is and what wine was subjected to prior to modern wine making and shipping techniques. When wine was shipped across large bodies of water, it was subjected to unregulated temperatures, sometimes violent sloshing, and time. Wine making is an art and those who attempt this undertaking are in a constant battle to control, manage and respond to the elements in ways that enhance the production of wine. But throw that precious cargo into a boat in 1766 and send it across the Atlantic and just see how artful folks getting this stuff think you are.

What wine makers recognised early on was that wine needed to be preserved from the elements in some way or another. Wine needed to stop maturing. It needed to resist wild temperature fluctuations. It had to withstand being jostled. The wine needed to be fortified for its trip to other lands. This was achieved by adding brandy, a distilled spirit, to the wine. Of course this had an effect on flavor, killing of the yeast and producing something sweeter and heavier than a normal wine. But it also made the wine stable for shipping long distances.

We have new ways of preserving wine so that it ships easily but these fortified wines are still popular. Why not have a cocktail before dinner or a glass of one of the dessert versions with some cheese afterwards?