Port & Sherry
Fortified wines — the most notable being Port and sherry — are made by adding a neutral spirit (usually brandy) to stop fermentation and raise the alcohol level of the wine. This process allows fortified wines to age longer in the bottle and to remain fresh for a longer period after they have been opened. Fortified wines can be made from white or red grapes and run the gamut from dry to sweet, introducing a range of distinct styles. A favorite dessert wine, Port, is a fortified wine made in the Douro region of Portugal from a variety of different grapes. Port can be unaged or aged in wood barrels to create Ruby Port or aged for extended periods of time, even decades, to create Tawny. The best Port vintages are extensively aged to create Vintage Port, which can develop and improve for decades. Madeira is also a Portuguese fortified wine, but it is made on the Madeira Islands off the coast of Africa. Styles of Madeira run from the very dry Sercial, which is typically enjoyed as an aperitif, to the decadently sweet Malvasia, which is usually paired with desserts. Showing similar versatility is the Spanish fortified wine Sherry. Sherry is typically made with the Palomino grape and ranges from the dry Fino to the very sweet Jerez Dulce, which is often made with Pedro Ximénez grapes. Marsala is Italy’s versatile fortified wine, drawing from the city of Marsala in Sicily, and it too can range from dry to sweet. Today, Marsala is most commonly used in Italian cooking — dry versions appearing in sauces and sweet versions appearing in desserts. A final wine that deserves note is Vermouth, for which we have a dedicated section.
Top Port & Sherry Posts:
Exploring Port Wine: Touring Porto and the Douro Valley
What is Fortified Wine and How Is It Made?
2016 Vintage Port (and Beyond)
Madeira Wine 2018
Hidalgo Fino and Bodegas Dios Baco Oxford 1.970 Pedro Ximenez Sherry
Summer is made for mixing up cocktails with white Port — just add tonic and an orange slice if you have it. Cockburn’s nonvintage Porto Branco offers an approachable, if innocuous, way to explore some ...
No big changes for Graham’s entry-level 10 year old tawny expression since our last look in 2016; even the packaging remains the same 5 years on. And sure enough, it remains one of my top ...
We’ve reviewed the Port wines of Sandeman on several occasions, the most recent in 2016. Today we look at a smattering of offerings from the iconic house on the Douro river, including a fresh look ...
Recently we reviewed Dow’s LBV Port from 2015, now it’s Taylor Fladgate’s turn. This is Fladgate’s 50th year producing Late Bottled Vintage Port, so — well, that’s something to celebrate, right? This expression is bright ...
It’s only been a year since we looked at Dow’s two entry-level Tawny Port releases, one a 10 year old and one a 20 year old. We just got fresh bottles of each, so let’s ...
Although you may have tried American sherry, true sherry is made exclusively in a small triangular area in Spain geographically demarcated by the cities of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María, and ...
It’s been four years since we saw an LBV bottling from Dow’s, with the 2011 vintage. 2015 was not a declared vintage for most Port houses, though Dow’s had a notable small release from a ...
Madera, California-based Quady is one of the most venerable names in U.S. dessert wines, its history dating back to 1975. Quady’s still at it, with a collection of vintage Port-like wines which it cheekily refers ...
It’s been six years since we checked in with Inniskillin (and six more years before that), so it’s high time we sampled the Canadian winery’s icewines once again. Inniskillin makes icewine (aka ice wine) from ...
Like Graham’s Six Grapes and Sandeman’s Founders Reserve, Fonseca Bin 27 is a widely available and top-selling ruby Port wine with wide availability, produced by one of Portugal’s most notable producers. We last encountered Bin ...
