The Korea Times

THURSDAY, JULY 9, 19881

Sherry, Port: Two Great Fortified Wines

The chalky albariza soil of Jerez that suits the Palomino grape so well.
By KenKirn
Times Wine Writer

ou may recall seeing labels for sherry and port at the wine store but you rarely hear people talk about them brandy is added to the wine - the as they do Chardonnay and Cabernet. process is called "fortification"- and You also see people buy them a lot the dessert wine is finally both sweet less than the usual red and white and strong. So, for obvious reasons, wines. Well, I would like to talk about these wines are consumed less - you can only drink so much of it before these "less talked of' wines today. First of all, these wines are what we getting drunk! Now, what about the wine's grape call "dessert wine." Perhaps you are now thinking of ice cream or fresh varietals and their appellation? Sherry dessert wine is the most repfruit. As a matter of fact, some people do drink sherry or port when they resentative wine from Spain. Towns enjoy dessert. But if you know any- like Jerez de !a Frontera, Puerto .de thing about these wines, you would Santa Maria and Sanlucar de Barhave it for dessert rather than with rameda are the origins for the sherry. dessert. ; The grapes used to make sherrys are How are sherry and port different Palomino and. Pedro Ximenez. They , from other wines? Well, you may are only found in Spain. There was a point in time when sherhave experienced being offered a tipy bottle of "liquor" on international ry used to be immensely popular with flights. These drinks are served after wine drinkers, partly for its versatility the meal and, in most cases, they taste :with food, but it began'to lose favor very sweet- especially if it is French around 12-80. The dryness of most Cognac. The dessert wine, otherwise sherry was often too strange to those known as fortifi'ed wine, is blended who were brought up on the typically ripe, soft, fruity wines of today. But with this type of brandy. There is, of course, a reason for this. once someone acquires the taste, To make a dessert wine, the winemak- many winemakers claim, he or she is ers usually terminate the wine fermen- forever hooked. Port wine, on the other hand, is tation process at about half-point so that the level of sugar stays high and mainly from Portugal. More specifimakes the wine less strong. Wine at cally, it comes from the hot, dry this stage is very sweet and sometimes Douro Valley, where nearly 90 grape possesses a bitter taste similar to cher- varieties are cultivated in the thin soil ries or herbs, but without much of an on steep, sometimes precipitous, slopes and terraces. alcohol taste. One~ piCked, the port wine grapes, To raise the level of alcohol, a bit of

rom the Grapevine

are aged in the port shipper's lodges at the river's mouth in the town of Porto, hence the wine's name. To describe the port's taste exactly is difficult because there are several styles of port, but generally, port is sweet, red, heavy, and alcoholic- almost everything that modern table wine isn't. Among the several styles of port, the two main types are bottle-aged port, referred to as "vintage port," and wood-aged tawny port. These two are very different in character. Vintage port, bottled two years after the harvest and thep matured in bottles, is usually made only in the best years and is seldom ready to be drunk before it is 10, sometimes 20 years old. It is very deep colored, intensely fruity (often reminiscent of black currants, plums, and dried figs), rich, very sweet and often chocolatey. The most successful vintage styles are made in tiny quantities in Australia and are usually based on the Shiraz (Syrah) grape, which gives a more aromatic and usually sweeter wine. By contrast, the "tawny port" is much paler and browner and has a mellow, nutty, slightly woody, dried fruit character derived from its coritact with air during its long maturation in porous wooden casks. One small note about the storage process is that the winemakers must refill the barrels once every three months to keep the

barrels full. If any air seeps into the wine, the wine will be ruined. It is often said that port wine is the most famous and copied wine in the world. Other wines can't come even close to it because its unique flavor is developed through the combination of a great number of gr&pe varietals, the fermenting method and, most importantly, through the rough climate unique to D9uro. To keep preserve this unique flavor, port wine should be served lightly chilled. One more note about the wine appellation. Like most European wines, the appellation is much more important than the varietals. For the appellation, folks usually go by the names of the shippers or producers. The shippers refer to the wine merchants who private-label the wine rather than waiting for labeling by the producers. Many producers are small and they often rely on shippers to market their wines. You will see names like A.A. Ferreira, Fonseca, Quinta do Nova! and Ramos Pinto. Do not worry or feel intimidated by the foreign names. You can just pick one which is in your budget or pick one which is the cheapest and you will not regret it. As far as the year is concerned, you will see that these dessert wines have much older vintage years than other table wines. This is because they are treated more like whisky which need to be aged more. For the locals who may now want to try these dessert wines, I have one advice. Don't drink sherry or port like you do other wines because it can make you very uncomfortable - like after you drank too much French Cognac.

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