3 Fortified Wines You Should Know Beyond Port And Sherry

Port and Sherry may dominate the conversation, but they’re only scratching the surface. From wines once drunk by Crusaders to bottles that can stay open for years, here are a few fortified oddities that deserve a place on your radar.

When you hear of fortified wines, Port and Sherry immediately come to mind, and it’s no surprise too, because these are the two most emblematic examples of this style of wine. But the world of fortified wines runs much deeper than that, with a host of other beverages that have their own riveting histories, processes, and flavour profiles.

Fortified isn’t just strong wine; it’s actually wine that has had a distilled spirit added to it during or after fermentation to, well, fortify it. It was originally invented in the 16th and 17th centuries so wine wouldn’t spoil on long, hot sea voyages, but persists in the present day as something to enjoy for reasons beyond just its resilience. Here are some of the most fascinating fortified wines hiding off the beaten path.

Pineau des Charentes

Alright, so Pineau des Charentes is technically a mistelle, because the spirit is added to unfermented grape juice in this case, whereas fortified wines add a spirit to an already fermenting juice, but that’s not a hair worth splitting when it comes to such an interesting beverage as this.

To make Pineau des Charentes, fresh unfermented grape juice, which can be either red or white, is blended directly with young cognac. The high alcohol percentage of the cognac puts a stop to any fermentation, keeping all the raw natural sugars of the grape intact. It is then put into oak barrels where they sit and mature for at least a year, and often much longer than that.

On the palate, it presents as rich, velvety, and sweet, but rounded off by the warm grip of the spirit. Expect notes of poached pears, candied figs, and fresh honey, all wrapped up with a toasty, elegant cognac spice on the finish. It makes for a great aperitif and an equally great foil for morsels like melon, foie gras, and blue cheese.

Madeira

Madeira is a tiny, mountainous volcanic island that sits atop the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a place unlike any other that lends its name to a wine unlike any other. But just what about it is so different? Well, for starters, the people who make it break one of the most fundamental tenets of winemaking in that they intentionally expose the wine to extreme heat and oxidation. Historically, this was a process that occurred more naturally as barrels of the stuff sat in hot ships as they crossed the equator. These days, though, it’s done using estufas (heated tanks) or canteiros (storing barrels in sun-baked attics for decades).

Besides imparting the wine with its singularly unique characteristics, this process also renders the wine virtually indestructible. Because it’s already technically been cooked and oxidised, these hazards that plague regular wines are no longer an issue, meaning an open bottle can stay good in your cabinet for years on end, or even decades really.

The wine itself can range from dry to very sweet, but the one constant is an intense, mouth-watering acidity that cuts through all the rich flavours. You’ll find notes in it that intuitively make sense when you look at how it’s made, these being the likes of toffee, roasted hazelnut, dark caramel, dried orange peel, and coffee.

Commandaria

Commandaria is a cool name for an even cooler wine. Hailing from Cyprus, Commandaria is widely recognised as the oldest named wine still in production, dating back over 800 years to King Richard the Lionheart and the Crusades. Yes, this wine was literally drunk by the Knights Templar.

To fashion this ancient elixir, indigenous red (Mavro) and white (Xynisteri) grapes are harvested and then sun-dried on straw mats for one to two weeks under the Mediterranean sun. What this does is it dehydrates the grapes into raisins, concentrating the sugars before they are even pressed, fermented, and fortified. Following this, it’s aged for a period of at least two years in oak barrels, often going through a solera-like system.

It’s a wonderfully textured wine, viscous and thick, with a deeply comforting, long, and spicy finish. It’s kind of like a liquid fruitcake in a glass, harbouring notes of stewed figs, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, honey, and orange marmalade. It makes for a great digestif, to be enjoyed after your own battle with a particularly meaty main course perhaps.

So there you have it: a selection of fortified wines that don’t occupy quite as much shelf space as their more celebrated brethren, but are every bit as deserving of your attention. Actually, considering their histories and rather extraordinary methods of production, they might be even more deserving.

The next time you’re throwing a dinner party and looking to impress, see if you can get your hands on one or two of these. You can always sneak your phone under the table and quietly rattle off a few facts about them to your guests. That’ll surely earn you a few social points, wouldn’t it? 

Opening image: Cup of Couple | Pexels