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Fortified Wines
The addition of alcohol during or after alcoholic fermentation produces fortified wines of over 14% alcohol, generally called dessert wines in the United States. In most countries, these wines are taxed at higher rates than those of 14% alcohol or lower. Fortification has two purposes:
(1) to raise the alcohol content sufficiently (usually between 17% and 21%) to prevent fermentation of all of the sugar and
(2) to produce types with a special alcohol character. The alcohol used for fortification is usually (legally required in most countries) distilled from wine.
The distillation of the fortifying spirits is carried out to ensure a high amount of alcohol, usually 95 to 96%. Industrial alcohol has also been employed in a few countries.
The repressive effect of alcohol on alcoholic fermentation increases rapidly as the alcohol content is raised above 14%, particularly in the presence of sugar. To secure prompt cessation of fermentation, the added alcohol must be rapidly and uniformly mixed with the fermenting must; this is accomplished by stirring or mixing with compressed air.
In the simplest type of fortification, the initial fermentation is allowed to proceed nearly to, or all the way to completion. The resulting wine is usually subjected to a baking process, as in Madeiras and California sherries, lasting for one to four months, at 58 to 65°C. If the wine is low in sugar content, heating will change its flavour and colour only slightly; with greater sugar content, a more caramelised flavour, typical of sweet Madeiras and sweet California sherries, is produced.
When white must is fortified during fermentation, the resulting wine is sweet, the degree of sweetness depending on the original sugar content of the must and the time of fortification. Some types, fortified early, produce very sweet wines. Muscatels, produced in many countries, are often of this type.
Red sweet wines, such as port, are more difficult to produce. Although the grapes must be fermented with the skins to extract colour, the fermentation cannot be continued for long if the requisite sugar is to remain in the finished wine. One method of securing sufficient colour is to use grape varieties containing large amounts of pigments in their skins. The skins and juice are sometimes heated to about 65°C to extract colour.
The flor sherries, such as the dry or fino-type sherry produced in Spain, are a special type of dessert wine. The base wine is fortified to about 15% alcohol, and a special alcohol-tolerant film yeast develops as a film on the wine surface. Acetaldehyde, an aldehyde, is one of the flavour products produced by this procedure. Following this process, the alcohol content may be further raised to 16-18%. By adjusting the oxygen content, the flor yeast may be induced to develop and produce acetaldehyde in a submerged culture, a process used commercially in California.
Marsala, a type of dessert wine produced in Sicily, has a dark amber colour and burnt sugar flavour, derived from the addition of grape juice that has been cooked and reduced to about one-third its original volume.
Dessert wines aged for only short periods lack the complex flavour of those dessert wines aged in small oak cooperages for at least two to four years. During ageing, white wines gradually darken in colour, while red wines become less red and more amber. Flavour becomes more complex and mellow as wood flavour is extracted from the container, various substances in the wine become oxidised, and complex compounds of acids and alcohol are formed. If the wood containers are stored in warm, dry rooms, more water than alcohol is lost, and the alcohol content of the wine increases. This effect is common in dessert wines from the south of Spain. At lower storage temperatures and normal humidity, there is little change and sometimes even a slight decrease in alcohol content.
In the production of certain wines, special character is achieved by blending wines of different ages, a technique often used for port blends. By varying the proportion of the various wines, a range of types varying in colour and flavour may be produced. The blending may be performed continuously, as in the solera system common in Spain. This process involves a series of casks graduated according to the age of the wine each contains. One or more times each year, a portion of wine, usually 10 to 25%, is taken out of the oldest cask. This is replenished from the next oldest containers, and these in turn from younger containers. After a number of years, depending on the portion withdrawn each year and the number of years since the start, the average age of wine in the oldest container no longer changes. This process is called a fractional-blending system.
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