several useful things. It perforates the skin of
the grape, thus allowing it to lose moisture
and become concentrated during the
subsequent dry period; it metabolizes some of
the tartaric acid at the same time that it
consumes some of the grape’s sugars, so the
balance between sweetness and acidity
doesn’t suffer; it produces glycerol, which
lends the eventual wine an incomparably
dense body; and it synthesizes a number of
pleasing aroma compounds, notably the
maple-sugar-like sotolon, mushroomy
octenol, and a number of terpenes. The
honeyed flavor of these wines can develop in
the bottle for decades.
Fortified Wines Fortified wines are so called
because the strength of the base wine is
boosted by the addition of distilled spirits to
18–20% alcohol, a level that prevents spoilage
by vinegar bacteria and other microbes.
Fortification appears to have begun in the