本帖最後由 letsrock 於 2010-6-7 16:21 編輯
There are 2 types of dessert wine, one is fortified, and the other is normal sweet wine.
A fortified wine is a wine that is "fortified" with additional alcohol that's been added to the base wine during fermentation, bringing the average alcohol content up around 17-20%. Fortified wines can be made in either dry or sweet styles (with the middle-ground of medium-sweet or medium-dry covered in virtually all types of fortified wine categories). The most common types of fortifed wines are Port, Sherry (Spanish), Marsala (italian) and Madeira.
The most well known is port and the way it was discovered was a bit interesting, as the Brits and Portuguese always argue who discovered it (or invented). It was actually adding whiskey into barrels of aging wine, trying to increase the storage life, as to increase the alcohol level to slow down the aging during the times when these 2 countries were fighting to gain more colonies. It ended up to be port. And then they discovered that using the barrels that have made port, to make whiskey and can produce better color and oak fragrance. Later the Portuguese focused more on using brandy rather than only whiskey.
BTW, please only buy tawny port, that is port aged in barrels. Ruby port is aged in steel cases/bottle.
If you find the port too sweet but you enjoy the fragrance and flavor, you can mix it with a bit of red wine, about 3:1. It makes it easier to drink. But only recommended to be done with cheaper port and cheaper wine. They are meant to be drunk straight from the bottle anyway.
Start with 10 yrs, then 20 years, then 30, then Vintage.
For vintage, you must finished it the same evening, the others, you can put a stopper on the bottle and put it in the fridge, should last for about 2 weeks.
Cheers and enjoy! |
