Fortified wine WSET4 Flashcards
What are fortified wines?
Fortified wines are those which have been subject to fortification and therefore include sherry, port, madeira, vermouth,málaga, montilla, marsala, liqueur muscat, liqueur Tokay, and several strictly local specialities.
Liquids made by adding spirit to grape juice rather than wine are not, strictly, fortified wine.
What is Madeira?
Fortified wine made by technique of using heat in the maturation process, high in acid with aromas of oxidation and maderization in a variety of sweetness levels. Finer have high-toned rancio aromas & searing acidity. Colour can vary from pale gold to deep mahogany brown with a yellow-green tinge.
What is port?
A fortified wine made by adding brandy to arrest fermenting grape must that results in a wine, red and sometimes white, that is both sweet and high in alcohol. Port derives its name from the city Oporto (Porto). Eu law restricts the term Port to a strictly defined area in the Douro valley of Northern Portugal. Similar fortified wines are made in South Africa, Australia and California.
Define vermouth?
Fortified wine flavoured by maceration with additional herbs/spices, it is what you call an aromatized wine. Traditionally vermouths were flavoured by infusion of ‘botanicals’, herbs, peels, and spices gathered from the wild. Modern vermouth is more likely to be flavoured by the addition of a concentrate designed for consistency to match an imagined ideal blend of botanicals. After sweetening, usually with mistelle, and fortification, most modern vermouth is chilled for tartrate stabilization and subjected to pasteurization and filtration.
what is VDN?
VDN is sometimes used as an abbreviation for vin doux naturel.
What is vin doux naturel?
Vin doux naturel translates directly from French - natural sweet wine. Vins doux naturels are made by mutage, by artificially arresting the conversion of grape sugar to alcohol by adding spirit before fermentation is complete, thereby incapacitating yeasts with alcohol and making a particularly strong, half sweet wine in which grape flavours dominate wine flavours. They are normally made of the grape varieties Muscat and Grenache and should have an alcoholic strength of between 15 and 18 per cent and a potential alcohol of at least 21.5 per cent. They therefore fall within the official EU category vin de liqueur.
What does a young vin doux natural taste like?
A young vin doux naturel, like port, tastes relatively simply of grapes, sugar, and alcohol (although, since some fermentation has usually taken place, it may contain a more interesting array of fermentation products than those vin de liqueur that have been made by adding spirit to grape must).
What is a Muscat de Rivesaltes?
Muscat de Rivesaltes is a sweet, white wine made of Muscat Petits Grains and Muscat of Alexandria fortified with pure alcohol and also an appellation for Muscat-based sweet wines from Roussillon, southern France. Powerful and intense, the Muscat of Alexandria gives fullness, ripe fruit aromas, fresh grape and rose. Refined and crisp, the Muscat Petits Grains gives exotic fruit and citrus scent. Young Muscat wines are pale golden in colour, with aromas reminiscent of peach, lemon, mango and mint. After a few years, their colour turns an intense shimmery gold colour and their aromas evolve towards notes of honey and preserved apricot. The appellation stretches over 90 towns of Pyrénées-Orientales and 9 towns of the Aude, which has a border with the Pyrénées-Orientales. Limestone and gneiss,Brown and black schist, Red & sandy clay.
Banyuls
Geographic location: 4 towns of Pyrénées-Orientales, Banyuls-Sur-Mer, Cerbère, Collioure and Port-Vendres. - White vines: white and grey Grenache - Red vines: black and grey Grenache - Banyuls : black Grenache over or equal to 50% - Banyuls Grand Cru : black Grenache over or equal to 75% Colour: “oxydised” or “non oxydized” whites and reds (“Rimage”). Terroir: terrain of grey schist from the Cambien. The vines are settled on steep slopes or on very narrow terraces held back by low walls facing the sea. Surface area of Banyuls: 617 hectares Surface area of Banyuls Grand Cru: 261 hectares
Banyuls Rimage
Banyuls « Rimage »: ageing for 12 months minimum in an airtight environment. Complex and elegant wines with notes of small black fruit.
Oxidised Banyuls
Wines with notes of preserved fruit, fig and prune.
Banyuls Grand Cru
Wines ageing for a minimum of 30 months in oak. Only the best vintages are issued, of a strong concentration. The oak ageing will refine their complexity and their structure. They develop a cooked fruit aroma with hints of spicies, mocha, tobacco and notes of roasted coffee.
Maury
Geographic location: 4 towns of the Pyrénées-Orientales, to the north-west of Perpignan (Maury, Tautavel, Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet, Rasiguères), hills of black marl and schist in the north of the AC Côtes du Roussillon in the wine growing region Roussillon . A sweet, fortified Vin doux naturel in red, pink, white and tawny (amber) colour. Grape varieties: - white vines: white and grey Grenache, Macabeu, Malvoisie of Roussillon, Muscats of Alexandria and Muscat à Petits Grains. - red vines: black Grenache, Carignan and Syrah. The AC Maury Rancio applies to wines aged in oak barrels, which are exposed to sunlight. This gives them the typical Rancio . Mas Amiel-known producers, Domaine de la Coume du Roy, Jean-Louis Lafage Cave, Cave de Maury, and Domaine Maurydoré Pouderoux.
Maury “Vendange”, “Récolte”, “Vintage”
Maury ageing for 12 months minimum in an air-tight environment. Powerful, complex wines with notes of black fruit
“Oxidized” red Maury
Wines with hints of dried fruit, cocoa and coffee.
White Maury
Wines ageing for 12 months minimum. Wines with white-fleshed fruit and citrus evolving overtime into preserved fruit and honey undertones. White Maury Hors d’Age : ageing for 5 years minimum in an environment favouring oxidisation.
Maury Rancio
These rich, sticky, deep mahogany , very sweet, long-aged vins doux naturels are made from variously-coloured Grenache grapes, sun-shrivelled on the bush vines struggling for survival on the arid schists around Maury. That schist gives them great firmness and the long ageing in old casks results in appetising rancio flavours, the decongestant tang that comes from long, hot oak ageing. Alcohol has generally been added at some point to stop fermentation by mutage, pure alcohol of at least 96 ° in the minimum proportion of 5% to 10% maximum. Alcohol levels are usually around 16 per cent. On the nose candied fruits mingle with prunes, spices and leather. In the mouth intense roasted notes blend with honey and blond tobacco. Its finish is smooth and slightly chocolaty.
Rivesaltes
The appellation stretches over 90 towns of Pyrénées-Orientales and 9 towns of the Aude, which has a border with the Pyrénées-Orientales. Limestone and gneiss,Brown and black schist, Red & sandy clay. Colour: amber, tuilé and garnet.
Amber Rivesaltes
Ageing of 30 months minimum in an environment favouring oxidization. Complex wines with notes of preserved orange, gingerbread, dried fruit, caramel and mild spices. White and grey Grenache, Macabeu, Malvoisie of Roussillon, Muscat Petits Grains and Muscat of Alexandria.
Tuilé Rivesaltes
Ageing of 30 months minimum in an environment favouring oxidization. Intense wines with toasty notes, hints of cocoa, coffee, tobacco and preserved fruit. Black Grenache and vines from Amber Rivesaltes but except Muscats.
Garnet Rivesaltes
Rivesaltes Grenat: ageing in a reduction environment, of which 3 months in-bottle. Rich and voluptuous wines with cherry and blackberry aromas made of black Grenache.
Rivesaltes Hors d’Âge
Reserved for Amber or Tuilé Rivesaltes with a minimum of 5 years’ ageing.
Rivesaltes Rancio
Rivesaltes Rancio: acquires the taste called “Rancio” with age (walnuts, dried fruits, etc…). Rivesaltes Rancio are produced as oxidated, sweet white wines that are either white or red. The whites are made with Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Maccabeu and Tourbat (Torbato) comprising the majority of the blend and up to 20% Muscat Blanc à Petit Grains and Muscat d’Alexandrie (Muscat à Gros Grains). For reds, the majority of the blend is at least 50% Grenache Noir, with smaller percentages of Grenache Gris or Blanc, Maccabeu and Tourbat. These wines are aged several years (a minimum of 5) on oak with exposure to air, imparting walnutty, honeyed, dried fruit flavors. These highly prized wines are available in vintage and non-vintage releases, and known to last for many years, even decades.
What is the mutage method?
In order to produce a Vin Doux Naturel (fortified sweet wine) the Mutage technique is applied. This process consists of adding a pure, neutral wine originating spirit containing 96% alcohol to the musts while they are in alcoholic fermentation, of a proportion of about 5 to 10% of the must volume. This stops the action of the yeasts before they are able to transform all the sugar into alcohol. This is how the Vins Doux Naturels (fortified sweet wines) keep a part of the natural sweetness contained in the fruit. The Mutage happens on the cap of the must and allows the leveraging of the extraction power of alcohol for a period of 15 days to 3 weeks
What are brands?
Brands are interpreted strictly as individual products marketed on the basis of their name and image rather than on their inherent qualities, have a much less dominant position in the market for wine than for drinks such as beer or cola, for instance, but thanks to globalization they are growing in importance.
What is a quinta?
Portuguese word meaning ‘farm’, which may also refer to a wine-producing estate or vineyard. Single-quinta ports are those made from a single year and from a single estate in the Douro valley
Describe Portugal
On the western flank of the Iberian peninsula, Portugal joined the EU in 1986. Total area under vine has declined from 385,000 ha in the late 1980s to just over 240,000 ha producing just over 7 million hl by the mid 2000s.
Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains
Naturally aromatic Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains grapes are particularly well suited to the production of vins doux naturels designed to be drunk young (and, usually, chilled to offset the sugar and alcohol). The best known of these golden sweet liquids that are made exclusively from the finest muscat vine variety, was historically Muscat de Frontignan. The Languedoc has three other appellation contrôlée vins doux naturels, however: Muscats de Lunel, Mireval, and, an exception far from the coast, St-Jean-de-Minervois, whose vineyards are even higher than most of those for the red, pink, and dry white wines of Minervois.
Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise
This is the only part of the Rhône which uses Muscat (besides the sparkling wines of Clairette de Die), it provides the most elegant, sweet fortified Muscats in the world. Little sweet Muscat was made before 1945 when Muscat de Beaumes de Venise was classified an AOC for its vin doux naturel, but by the 1970s and 1980s its popularity in northern Europe was probably greater than Sauternes or sweet German wines. Despite its minimum 15% alcohol, low acidity and intense sweetness Muscat de Beaumes de Venise is surprisingly delicate and refreshing with a nose of flowers and tropical fruits (a lovely floral fragrance) and sweet, pale-gold, grapey fruit and have a long finish. Made exclusively from the best variety, Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains. The grapes must have a sugar content of over 252g/L. The addition of alcohol to the wine, mutage, must be performed with pure alcohol of at least 96%, when the musts contain 5% to 10% alcohol. The wines must contain at least 100g/L of sugar and feature at least 15% alcohol content. Planted on narrow terraces, known as “restanques” or “faysses”, and supported by walls, the muscat vines have shaped the region’s landscape. The vines draw from this thin soil the most powerful flavours. Made from assemblies of muscat à petits grains blanc and noir, their colour can vary from amber to rosé, and even purple. It should be drunk as young as possible, lightly chilled, either as an aperitif, with or after dessert.
When to serve a Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise
The Muscats benefit from being served young and chilled, but the alcohol preserves the freshness of wine in an opened bottle for at least a week.
What are the differences and similarities between port and muscat?
In both cases spirit is added when the fermenting must has reached about 6 per cent alcohol, except that whereas the added spirit constitutes between 5 and 10 per cent of the final volume of a vin doux naturel, typically resulting in an alcoholic strength of just over 15 per cent, the added spirit usually represents 20 per cent of the final volume of port, whose alcoholic strength is closer to 20 per cent. The spirit added to vins doux naturels is considerably stronger than that added to port, about 95 per cent alcohol as opposed to the traditional 77 per cent used in port fortification. Nowadays, however, the spirit may well come from exactly the same source, one of France’s larger distilleries designed to reduce Europe’s wine surplus.Thus a vin doux naturel contains less alcohol, and less added water, than port.
Describe the Douro.
Located in Northeast Portugal, within the Douro River basin, surrounded by craggy mountains that give it very particular soil and climacteric characteristics, this region spreads over a total area of approximately 250 000 hectares and is divided into three sub-regions (he Baixo Corgo and the Upper Corgo & Upper Douro) that differ greatly from each other not only as regards the weather but also for socio-economical reasons. The Douro valley is most famous as the source of fortified wine port. The Douro DOC is increasingly well known for the production of unfortified table wine. From the Douro’s 38,000 ha of vines, just over half the region’s production is made into port. The Douro was demarcated in 1756. Vines cover approximately 15.4% of all the land in the region. The land under vines is worked by approximately 33 000 farmers, each owning an average of 1 ha under vines. Small farmers are very representative in the production of Port Wine.
What is quinquinas?
Fortified wine flavored by maceration with additional herbs/spices. Cinchona bark is the essential flavouring element.
What are the 3 main methods of fortification? List an example 1
1) Arrest a wine’s fermentation through adding spirit while sugars remain (e.g. Port)
What are the 3 main methods of fortification? List an example 2
2) Fortify wine after fermentation concludes (e.g. Sherry). Produces a dry fortified wine, although the winemaker may add sweetened wine or grape syrup.
What are the 3 main methods of fortification? List an example 3
3) Fortify the wine prior to fermentation…produces a mistelle rather than a fortified wine, formerly known exclusively as vins de liqueur (e.g. Ratafia, Pineau des Charentes, Floc de Gascogne, Macvin du Jura)
When was the Douro first demarcated?
1756
Who protects/enforces Port production?
Douro Port Wine Institute (aka Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP),) a government-run regulatory body that supervises the promotion, production, and trade of all Porto and Douro DOP wines. Both growers and shippers must submit to its authority.
What is Casa do Douro?
Syndicate of growers’ guilds established in 1932 that assumed control over the regulation of viticulture. It lost many of its regulatory functions after it bought controlling shares in Royal Oporto, a port shipper and the surviving remnant of the Companhia Geral dos Vinhos do Alto Douro, orgin 1756. Casa do Douro continues to be a public association to which all farmers must belong and whose contractual relations with third parties are subject to commercial and civil law.
Ruby Style: Bottled matured, Ruby Reserve Port
Full-bodied, rich and deep ruby red, these wines are frequently the product of a selection of the best Port Wine made each year, blended together to create a young, powerful, fruity and intense wine that is also rounded and versatile.
Ruby Style: Bottled matured, Late Bottled Vintage Port (LBV)
This is a Ruby Port from a single year, chosen for its extremely high quality and bottled after ageing for four to six years in wood. Most of these Ports are ready for drinking when they are purchased, but some will continue to age in bottle (check the label). LBV Port is a deep ruby red, extremely full-bodied and rich in the mouth and it possesses the particular style and personality of a wine from a single harvest.
Ruby Style: Bottled matured, Vintage Port
Considered by many as the jewel in the Port Wine crown, this is the only Port that ages in bottle. Produced from the grapes harvested during a single year and bottled two to three years after the vintage, it develops gradually for 10 to 50 years before it is drunk. The charm of Vintage resides in the fact that it is attractive at pratically all stages of its life in bottle. During the first five years, it retains the intense ruby of its original colour, exuberant aromas of red fruits and wild berries and a taste of black chocolate, all of which is balanced by strong tannins that make it the perfect accompaniement to desserts that are rich in chocolate. After ten years in bottle, in addition to its throwing a light deposit, Vintage takes on garnet tones and attains a delicious plenitude of ripe fruit aromas and flavours. As the wine matures, its colour turns a rich golden brown and its fruit acquires a greater subtlety and complexity and the deposit that it throws becomes thicker.
Ruby Style: Bottled matured, Vintage Port, Single Quinta Vintage
These Vintages are unique in that they are not only the product of a single harvest but also of a single quinta, or wine estate, which makes them truly exceptional.
Tawny Style: Wood matured, Tawny Reserve Port
Tawny Reserve Port is aged in oak, this wine boasts extremely elegant flavours, the perfect combination of the fruitiness of youth and the maturity of age, also apparent in their attractive médium golden brown colour.
Tawny Style: Wood matured, Tawny 10 years old Port
A Tawny 10 years old Port is a bit more developed than Tawny Reserve, this is a very similar wine but with the added assurance that it bears the characteristics of a ten years old Port.
Tawny Style: Wood matured, Tawny 20 years old Port
With colours ranging from a reddish to golden Tawny, these exceptional wines are full of fruit and their flavours are more developed and concentrated due to the fact that the wine was aged in small oak casks. The extremely intense aromas and flavours are reminiscent of toasted vanilla and dried fruits, with delicate hints of oak.
Tawny Style: Wood matured, Tawny 30 years old Port
Tawny 30 years old Port.Certain Ports are set aside to age longer in wood. The gradual exposure to air concentrates and intensifies the original fruit of these wines, creating more complex characteristics where honey and spices are touched with deep aromas of dry peaches, hazelnuts and vanilla.
Tawny Style: Wood matured, Tawny 40 years old Port
Tawny 40 years old Port. This classification is given to the oldest Tawny Ports, wines that are marvellously concentrated and complex. Intense, they all but explode in the mouth, filling your palate with aromatic flavours that will astound your senses.
Tawny Style: Wood matured, Tawny Colheita Port
Colheita Port. These single vintage Tawnies are aged in cask for a minimum seven years and present a wide range of colours from golden red to tawny, depending on their age. Their bouquet and flavour also develop over time to create different style Tawnies.
Special categories of the White Port Wine
Special categories of the White Port Wine Port Wines can bear the designation ‘Reserve’ or ‘Indication of Age’ (10, 20, 30 or more than 40 years old) on the label, provided that the criteria of the Port Wine regulations are met
What characterises a port wine?
Port wines have highly persistent aromas and flavours, a high alcohol content (usually between 19 and 22% vol.), a vast range of degrees of sweetness and a assortment of colours. There is a set of categories that identify the different types of Port Wine. The different types of red Port vary in colour from deep purple to light gold, with a range of intermediary hues (tawny, golden tawny, golden and light gold). White Port comes in various shades (pale yellow, straw and golden white), all intimately related to the winemaking technique used. When aged in cask for many years, white wines acquire, through a natural oxidation, a golden hue that is very similar to that of a very old tawny wine. In terms of sweetness, Port can be very sweet, sweet, semi-dry or extra dry. Just how sweet a wine will be is a choice made during production; it depends on when the brandy is added to stop the fermentation of the wine.
What are the 2 major ageing categories for port wines?
Ruby Style Are wines in which the winemaker looks to restrain the evolution of their deep red colour and maintain the fruit and strength of a young wine. This is the type of wine that you will find in the following categories, in ascending order of quality: Ruby, Reserve, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) and Vintage. The finest category wines, especially Vintage, followed by LBV, are good for storing as they age well in bottle. Tawny Style Are obtained from lots of different wines that have aged for different lengths of time in casks or in vats. With age, the colour of the wines slowly develops into tawny, medium tawny or light tawny, with a bouquet of dried fruits and wood; the older the wine, the stronger these aromas. The present categories in this style are: Tawny, Tawny Reserve, Tawny with an Indication of Age (10, 20, 30 and 40 years old) and Colheita. These are blends of wines from several years, except for Colheitas, wines of a single year that are similar to an aged Tawny of the same age. These wines are ready to drink when they are bottled.
what are categories of sweetness in port?
In terms of sweetness, Port Wine can be very sweet, sweet, semi-dry, dry or extra dry. It is the winemaker who determines just how sweet a Port Wine will be according to when he interrupts the fermentation. The following table describes the different degrees of sweetness of several types of Port Wine. Extra dry - 130 Sugars (g/l)
Describe port vinification. method 1
Traditional winemaking method. After the grapes have been destemmed (separated from the stalks), they are crushed in lagares (open stone treading tanks with a maximum height of 60 cm). This operation, the treading, is traditionally performed by men and women although it may also be done with mechanical devices that simulate the action of the feet. After the first such crushing, the fermenting must is left to rest for some hours, after which it is again crushed until such a time as the fermenting must is separated from the solid matter in the juice (running off) and the brandy is added.
Describe port vinification. method 2
In modern wineries, most operations are mechanised. Once the grapes have been fully or partially destemmed, the grapes are crushed and pumped into vats where they ferment for 2 to 3 days. During this period the juice is pumped over several times to extract the maximum of colour from the skins.
