Fortified wines were created in the 16th-17th centuries when brandy was added to wines to stabilize them for long sea voyages, as many wines would spoil. This allowed the wines to better withstand temperature fluctuations and led to new styles of fortified wines like Port, Sherry, Madeira, Marsala, Malaga and Montilla becoming popular at destinations. These wines contain 17-21% alcohol making them more stable once opened than table wines.

1. FORTIFIED WINES
Born of the need to protect wines on long sea voyages, fortified wines
were created. As trade
Expanded in the 16th and 17th Centuries to finally encompass the
whole globe, many of the
Wines from Europe became spoiled on their long journeys across the
oceans. To counteract
This problem, wine makers took up the practice of adding measures of
brandy to stabilize the
wine. This is done either before or during the fermentation process
depending on the type of
wine being made. These new fortified wines were then better able to
withstand the rigors of a
long journey in the hold of a ship and the wildly fluctuating
temperatures they would encounter.
Once these wines reached their destination, they were often preferred to
the regular wine
normally served, because of their higher alcohol content, robust flavors
and firm texture. As a
result, a new wine was encouraged and was continued to be made long
after the need for
fortification was necessary.
These wines generally contain between 17 and 21 percent alcohol. As a
result, they are more
stable than ordinary table wines and less likely to spoil once they have
been opened. The
best-known examples are Port, Sherry, Madeira, Marsala, Málaga and
Montilla-Moriles.

2. MALAGA & MONTILLA
FROM THE PROVINCE of Andalucia in the south of Spain along the
Mediterranean coast, are
Málaga & Montilla-Moriles. Though cousins to Sherry, they are
distinctly different in style.
Málaga is on the Costa del Sol and gives its name to wine that is made
but not grown there. The
growing areas are in the hills 30 miles (50km) north of the city – hence
its eighteenth-century
name, "Mountain," as it became known in America and Britain – and
about the same distance
west. The two principle grapes are Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel.
The regulations state that the grapes must be brought in to Málaga to
age in its warehouses, to
qualify for the DO. This rich, sweet, raisiny wine was traditionally
made by leaving the grapes
out in the sun on grass mats for 7 to 20 days to concentrate the natural
sugars. Today, other
methods – the addition of boiled-down must (Arrope) and arresting the
fermentation with
grape spirit – are also employed to achieve the same effect.
Málaga was exported all over the world in the 17th and 18th centuries.
By the middle of the
19th century, it was in such demand that Málaga became Spain's second
largest wine region.
Today the wine has fallen on hard times.
Montilla is produced in the area just north of Málaga. In times past,
much of its production was

3. sent to Jerez to be blended with sherry. However, since 1960, its wines
may no longer be
blended with those of Jerez. The main differences between Montilla
and sherry are that
Montilla is made from the Pedro Ximénez grape rather than the
Palomino of sherry, and
secondly, that Montilla has a high natural strength (14 to 16 percent
alcohol) that allows it to
be shipped without fortification, unlike sherry which is nearly always
fortified.
The wines are fermented quickly in tall open clay jars called tinajas.
The wines fall into the
same classifications as sherry – Fino, Amontillado, or Oloroso – but
outside of Spain must be
sold as Pale Dry, Medium Dry, Pale Cream, and Cream. Montilla's
cheif competiton is sherry
and often has to contend with its image as the cheap alternative to it.
MARSALA
MARSALA IS THE BEST KNOWN fortified wine of Italy. Like
Málaga, it takes its name
from the town that produces it. Marsala was created by John
Woodhouse, an English merchant
and connoisseur of fortified wines. Seizing upon a viticultural vacuum
in 1770's Sicily,
Woodhouse went to Málaga to learn how its fortified wines were made.
He then organized his
own version of it, vineyards and all, in western Sicily. In 1773, he made
the first product by
adding 8-and-a-half gallons of grape spirit to each of the 105 gallon
(400L) barrels of wine
which he immediately shipped to England. The wines were received
enthusiastically. In 1796,
he opened up a warehouse and cellars in the town of Marsala.
Woodhouse's greatest marketing coup was his through his contacts with
Admiral Nelson's

4. Mediterranean fleet. On Nelson's way to victory at the 1798 Battle of
the Nile, they stocked up
on Marsala – which was in the Admiral's words, "worthy of the table of
any gentleman'' – in
place of the standard rum. From that time after, the British military
helped to spread the word
about the wine as they themselves continued to bolster the production
of it.
In 1812, Woodhouse was followed by another Englishman, Benjamin
Ingham. He founded a
firm in Marsala next to Woodhouse. He helped to improve the
production of the areas
vineyards and in 1834, published a manual dealing with the harvesting
of the grapes that was
aimed at correcting the problems of local growers.
In 1832, The largest Marsala house, Florio, was founded in 1832 by
Calabrian Vincenzo
Florio, known as the "father of the Sicilian wine trade.'' Owing no
doubt to the importance of
this wine, Florio's warehouse and cellars occupied a full kilometer of
frontage along the sea. It
was the first Italian Marsala house. The Marasala wine trade has always
been dominated by
large houses.
For at least a century it was the equal to Sherry and Madeira. In time
though, it was relegated to
the kitchen as mere cooking wine. But in 1986, the DOC laws for
Marsala were rewritten with
much stricter regulations and the wine has now climbed back into
respectability.
Today, Marsala comes in three different colors — Oro (golden), Ambra
(amber), Rubino
(ruby) — and five types — Fine (aged a minimum of one year),
Superiore (aged in wood two
years), Superiore riserva (aged in wood four years), Vergine (always
dry and aged in wood for
five years), Vergine stravecchio (aged in wood for at least 10 years).

6. MADEIRA
MADEIRA, named after the island it is made on, is like no other wine
in the world. Perhaps
no greater dedication has gone into the making of a fine wine, than that
which has gone into
the making of Madeira. Its success owes a lot to the primitive shipping
conditions of the
seventeenth century.
To reach the New World, the wines passed through the tropics. The
baking it received in the
blazing tropical sun, gave an otherwise light and acidic wine, a
softness, depth of flavor, and
a pleasant burnt quality. It was reasoned, if one crossing of the equator
was good for the
wine, two had to be better. By the late 1700's, orders were given to put
pipes of Madeira in
the hold of ships as ballast, and send them on round trip voyages to all
parts of the world. A
rather unique way to mature wine. The wine became known as vinho
da roda or wine of the
round voyage. Why these wines, exposed to constant rocking, extreme
heat, and the barrels
often found soaking in bilge water, were not ruined, is a mystery.
THE HISTORY OF MADEIRA
THE ISLAND OF MADEIRA sat uninhabited in the middle of the
North Atlantic until a
certain Portuguese explorer, Gonslaves Zarco, was blown off course by
a violent storm in
1418 while exploring the coast of West Africa. He found sanctuary on
a tiny island he called
Porto Santo. While there he saw southwest of Porto Santo, dark clouds
on the horizon
described as "vapors rising from the mouth of hell." Knowing it must
be a substantial island,

7. he set off for the clouds and found beneath them a beautiful garden
island. It was so covered
with trees that he named it "wood" or in Portuguese, "madeira."
Zarco was sponsored by the third son of King João I, Prince Henry the
Navigator. Though he
could not be called a practicing mariner himself, Henry was the
remarkable prince who was
to set in motion the great age of discovery. As soon as Zarco's report
got back to Prince
Henry, he began at once its colonization. The dense forest were felled
and burned – the fires
were said to have burned for seven years – and a great deal of the land
was brought under
cultivation. Infante D. Henrique is credited with the introduction of
sugar cane from Sicily in
1452, and in 1453, the sweet Malvasia grapes from Cyprus or Crete.
Until now the Genoese
and the Venetians had a virtual monopoly on sugar and sweet wines.
Henrique wanted to
change that. Sugar became the great cash crop. Madeira produced so
much sugar that the
price for sugar in Europe was halved. By the end of the 1400's,
Madeira was the world's
greatest producer of sugar. Madeira was flourishing as a Portuguese
colony.
Two things conspired to help the growth of Madeira Wine. As
Portugal's possessions
expanded into the Americas, it was found that Brazil was able to
produce better and cheaper
sugar. Thus in the late 1500's, the island's farmers found that wine was
a more profitable
crop.
Secondly, Mardeira, situated as it is, in the Atlantic shipping lanes, was
a natural port of call
for any ships traveling across to the Americas or south around Africa
to Asia. Thus, almost
all friendly ships dropped anchor in the harbor of Funchal, the regional
capital of Madeira.

8. This was good fortune for Madeira and for its wine trade. Ships
making the stop invariably
loaded wine for the voyage. What cinched the deal was a piece of
British legislation in 1665
forbidding the export of European wines to British colonies except
through British ports and
in British ships. The one exception was Madeira. As a result, it became
a regular supplier to
all American ships heading west.
The Boston
Madeira Party??
America grew fond of the wine from Madeira and became
one of its
biggest customers, buying nearly a quarter of all the wine
produced here.
By the 18th century, the British American and West Indian
colonies,
drank it as their only wine. Not only was it the preferred
wine, but it was
so highly thought of that five years before the Boston Tea
Party, it caused
a riot on the docks of that city when British customs officials
tried to
impose duties on a shipment of Madeira. It was used to toast
the
Declaration of Independence in 1776, and in 1789, at the
inauguration of
George Washington..
News of its popularity in America from the troops returning
from the
American War of Independence created connoisseurs of
Madeira in
Britain as well. Ladies were known to use it to perfume their
handkerchieves. Officers in the service of their country
demanded 15

9. bottles of it a month. It was said to have tonic value as well.
It was so
recommended for sick or overworked people, that it was
nicknamed the
"milk of the old."
The wine industry was at its peak when disaster struck.
Oidium or
Powdery Mildew struck the Island. By the time it was
learned that the
disease could be controlled by dusting the vine leaves with
sulphur, it had
almost destroyed all production. After a brief period of
rebuilding, the
phylloxera louse arrived in 1873. Six thousand acres were
destroyed.
Only about 20% were replaced with true Madeira vines.
Most were
replanted with European and American hybrids.
When in 1974, a revolution ended 42 years of dictatorship in
Portugal,
Madeirans took hold of their future. Tourism is the Island's
largest
industry and is aggressively promoted. Their economy was
given a boost
when Portugal was admitted into the European Union in
1986.
In the 1980's, bananas were found to fetch a higher price per
acre than
grapes, so many vines were replaced with banana trees.
Bananas are now
the Island's biggest agricultural export.
REGIONS
THE ISLAND OF MADEIRA is located southwest of Portugal at a
point 400 miles (680km)

10. west of Morocco in the North Atlantic. Steeply rising up to 6000 feet
(1800m) out of the
sea, this lush volcanic subtropical outcrop, is the largest of a four
island archipelago comprising Madeira, Porto Santo and the
uninhabited Desertas and
Selvagens.
The island is 35 miles (57km) long by 14 miles (22km) wide, with a
population of about
260,000. Almost half live in the regional capital of Funchal. The island
is noted for its
natural beauty. Exotic vegetation abounds in a carpet of green. The
terrain is rugged with
imposing valleys and some of the highest sea-cliffs in the world. The
climate is temperate
and the winters are mild.
Much like Portugal's other great wine region, the Douro, Madeira is a
difficult place to grow
grapes. Only about a third of the island is cultivated. Nearly all of the
growing areas are to be
found on small terraces – called poios. Built with determination, the
terraces are carved from
bedrock from near sea level up to heights of about 3250 feet (990m)
above sea level. The
vines are trellised high above the ground to reduce the risk of rot.
The burning of the forests to clear the land for cultivation in the 1420's,
left the ground
covered with an enriching layer of wood ash. This ash enriched
volcanic soil has proved to be
quite beneficial for the growing of grapes. Although the rainfall is
heavy, some irrigation is
required as the soil is very porous.
Grapes are grown all over the island, but the best sites have a southern
exposure. The main
vineyards are at Câmara de Lôbos and at Santana on the north coast.