Wine Styles - Fortified Wine

There are 5 basic wine styles: fortified wine, red wine, white wine, sparkling wine and dessert wine. Every Australian wine can be classified into one of these five types.

Fortified wine is wine that has been strengthened, through the addition of a spirit or alcohol solution. Fortified wines were developed because of the need to preserve European wines on long trade voyages during the 16th and 17th centuries. Measures of brandy were added before or during the fermentation process to stabilize the wine. On long sea voyages, fortified wines were able to withstand the wildly fluctuating temperatures and constant motion they were subjected to in the ship's hold. In the 1800s, the infant Australian wine industry adopted the wine fortification process within a few years of settlement. This helped in sending wine across the equator to the UK markets.

There are several different types of fortified wine. The style is determined by the grape varieties used, the type of spirit added and the winemaking process including yeast activity and aging process. The stage at which the spirit is added and the types of spirit used have an enormous impact on the style of wine being made. Generally the earlier the spirit is added, stopping fermentation as the bacteria and yeast can no longer react with the sugar, the sweeter the resulting wines. After fortification, the wine is left to mature in oak barrels, sometimes for decades, maturing into complex, aromatic wines, with immense depth and concentration of flavour and colour

There are four main types of fortified wines. These are Port, Sherry, Madiera and Marsala (the best-known fortified wine of Italy). The latter two are often used in cooking, but some types are produced for drinking. The word Port can now only be used for wines produced in Portugal, so Australia has Vintage and Tawny style. Vintage and Tawny styles are produced from grapes picked when the sugar level is high and tawny styles are aged in cask for 50-60 years whereas Vintage style wines are aged in the bottle after 1-2 years in cask. Vintage styles are produced exclusively from grapes harvested during the 'vintage' year - no blending occurs.

Sherry is principally made from the Palomino grape (Spanish origin) and classified into various styles. The three Sherry styles are Fino, Amontillado and Oloroso. The solera system is a dynamic method of blending and aging the wines to maintain freshness and consistency.

Muscat and Tokay are made from fortified juice that is stored and matured in oak casks (sometimes using the solera system), where evaporation over time plays an important role in the concentration of flavours and complexity of the wines

One of Australia's most celebrated fortified wines is the renowned liqueur Muscat. Muscat Blanc and Petits Grains grapes are left to ripen and even shrivel well beyond normal maturity before being harvested to produce Muscat. The Rutherglen region in north-east Victoria is best known for these Muscat and Tokay fortified styles of wine and has an international reputation for the rich, mellow flavours it captures.

One of Australia's best known fortified wines traces its genesis back to a barrel of fine fortified wine set aside by the Seppelt wine making family in the Barossa in 1878. Patriarch Benno Seppelt decreed that this barrel, the finest of that vintage, should remain untouched for one hundred years. In 1978 the family released the first of the precious Para Liqueurs. In succeeding years, the family and subsequent corporate owners have continued the tradition, releasing limited bottles of Para Liqueur Vintage Tawny wines on their 100th birthdays.

Many Australian wineries also produce fine white fortified styles. These wines are fine lighter textured, aromatic fortifieds with varying levels of sweetness. They can be appreciated as either aperitif or dessert wines.

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