Bartender's Diary-6

FORTIFIED WINES

                                     In Fortified wines alcohol added either during or after fermentation.

PORT

Port

           Greatest fortified wines of the world also known as Vinho do Port. Port was created in the beginning of 18th century in the Douro Valley. Port is produced exclusively in Douro Valley north of Portugal.

Types

Ruby Port: Short time maturation in the casks, full bodied, robust and deep ruby in color.

Tawny Port: Kept for longer time in casks (2 or more yrs) giving brownish color that gives its name, less sweet and lighter in body than ruby.

Crusted Port: Blend of high quality wines usually from different vintages kept for several years casks and for more in bottles, it develops its crust in the bottle, it is an elegant and well bodied wine.

White Port: Is made from white grapes and is made in the same way as tawny.

Late Bottled Port: Is aged in casks instead of bottles for 6 yrs or 8. This is a characteristic of Vintage Port.

Vintage Port: Is declared when the maker finds the crops good in the particular year. It is aged for 10-30 yrs before consumption. It is delicate and mellow wine.

Sherry 

                   It is a blended and a fortified wine that comes from the town JEREZ in Spain. There are two categories: Fino & Oloroso which both start life as pale, dry wines but get converted into medium or sweet wine by blending. Secondary wine can be used for coloring. The difference is that Fino develops with the appearance of curious yeast called Flor that appears on the surface of the fermenting wine in casks that are kept open to the air. Those wine casks that do not have this growth are called Rayas or “wines for burning” from which Oloroso develops.

The Solera system:

 It is another notable system of Sherry. In this system the older wine is bottled for shipping and the cask is replenished with the next oldest wine. The 2^nd oldest wine is replenished by the 3^rd oldest wine and so on. Sherry has therefore no vintage year. The most important grape used for sherry is Palomino.

Madeira

                     This comes from Island of Madeira. It has smoky taste because of cooking process. The wine is put into a Hot Room and heated to a temperature of 90⁰-140⁰F for several months before being fortified with spirit and matured in wood. It is served as an aperitif, syrup, wine, dessert wine, or after dinner wine.

Marsala 

                       It is a dessert wine from Italy made in North West Sicily. It is a dark strongly flavoured wine. The best varieties are good, inexpensive after dinner drinks while the dry variety called Virgin is good as an aperitif.

Aromatized Wines 

                                            These wines are prepared with addition of brandy or neutral spirits, herb and other flavoring 

Bitters

              Bitters are use in drinks, cooking and medicinally. Offen used in mixed drink or hangover removal drinks. Campari and Angoustra bitter is the best exaples.

Vermouth

                     Vermouth is prepared with cheap wine, flavored with worm-wood, quinine, coriander, orrisroot, bitter almond, nutmeg, cinchona bark, cassia wood, cloves, angelica root, orange peels, cinnamon, and rosemary.

LIQUEURS

                            A liqueur is sweetened and flavored spirit. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet and usually not aged for long after the ingredients are mixed, but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry. It is digestive drink after meals. There are 5 broad categories of liqueurs.

Herb liqueurs: Herbs like basil, peppermint, sage, thyme are used e.g. Drambuie

Citrus liqueur: Flavored with the peels of citrus fruit e.g. Cointreau

Fruit liqueur: Flavoured  with any fruit except citrus e.g. crème de banana

Bean liqueur: Beans, nuts and kernels are used e.g. crème de cacao

Cream liqueur : chololate, cream e.g Baileys irish cream

Spirit and sweetening agent is common for liqueurs, what differentiates is the flavoring agent. Classification of liqueur is as follow

Simple Liqueur:               40% Proof with 20 kg of sugar per 100 litres of liqueur.

Demi-fines:                       40% Proof with 20-25 kg of sugar per 100 liters of liqueur.

Fines:                                  49% Proof with 40-45 kg of sugar per 100 liters of liqueur.

Surfines:                             52% Proof with 45-50 kg of sugar per 100 litres of liqueur.

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