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Fortified Wines
 About the time that Dom Perignon noticed the first bubbles in his quietly cellared bottles, the English were unhappy with shipments of table wines arriving, in barrel, in poor condition. A suggestion was made that by adding brandy to the wine might preserve it better. And it did so!
Not only the addition of brandy preserve the wine and add a smooth, alcoholic mouthfeel, but with further time in the barrel, a noticeable change occurred. The porous oak, breathing and allowing a certain amount of evaporation, brought new life to these wines. This was the start of what we know as fortified wines, and long term maturation in oak and careful blending, they've developed into some of the greatest wines on the globe, port from Oporto in Portugal, sherry a name derived from Jerez in Spain, vermouth, marsala and tokay (tokaji) have all proven to be favourite and fashionable aperitifs or digestifs.
In the early days of Australian colonisation, fortified styles similar to ports and sherries were produced with ripe fruit, high levels of sugar, and brandy distilled from base wines. People liked the sweetness and, we suspect, the strength, so for 130 years or more, fortified wines were consumed here in quantities far out measuring standard table wines. Indeed, many winemakers still practising their craft today were apprenticed into the art of making sherry and port because that was what people drank at the time. Despite our shift to a preference for table wines following the Second world War, many consumers still have a liking for chilled dry sherry or an after dinner port with coffee. The custom will not die out because, at their best, these wines are magnificent.
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