Fortified Wines

Fortified wines hold a proud place in Australian wine history and continue to hold a special place in the hearts of aficionados of fine and dessert-style wines.

These wines are sometimes described as “liquid sunshine”, as the grapes are generally left on the vine much longer than usual.  This allows the berries to store more natural sugar while drying out slightly in the warmth of Australia’s autumn days.

Wine fortification, which generally involves the addition of a small amount of brandy spirit to the partly fermented red wine, ensures that colours and flavours are retained, regardless of the wines’ storage or treatment.

After fortification, the wine is generally left to mature in small oak barrels, sometimes for decades, maturing into complex, aromatic wines, with immense depth and concentration of flavour.

In the 1850s, the infant Australian wine industry adopted the wine fortification process within a few years of white settlement as it overcame the tyranny of distance from the English markets and the challenge of getting wines safely across the equator.  The technique was also suited Australia’s relatively warm climate and the red grape varieties, which were brought by the pioneers – Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvedre.