Sweet and Fortified Wine Group Holds First Tasting Event
By Ted Rieger
From Daily News Links, 03/03/2008
The new Sweet and Fortified Wine Association (SFWA), founded in 2007 by American producers of dessert, port-style, late harvest and other fortified wines, held its first annual public tasting event, “Savor the Flavor,” February 23 at the Lodi Wine and Visitors Center. According to founding member and president Peter Prager of Prager Winery & Port Works in Napa Valley, “One of our main goals is to educate the wine drinking public on what sweet and fortified wines are all about. Some people think these wines are simply to enjoy with dessert or while sitting around the fireplace, but it goes way beyond that.”

California producers such as Prager, Steve Pessagno of Pessagno Winery, and Terry Dewane of Belo Wine Company had informally met and discussed forming an organization over the past few years. Then, with the help of Ken Young, a wine educator and writer who worked at Deaver Vineyards for 15 years, who now serves as SFWA executive director, the group obtained non-profit status and began moving forward last year. As Young explained, “This is one part of the wine industry that has generally been neglected, as sweet and fortified wines are often looked upon as novelty products. We now have many producers of high quality dessert wines, and we want to show people that there are world class wines in this category being produced in the U.S.” The SFWA says recent U.S. sales indicate that dessert wines now account for 7.5 percent of all U.S. wine shipments, and growth in dessert wine sales has increased 61 percent in the last five years.

SFWA producer members, many of which were represented at the tasting, include: Berghold Vineyards, Lodi; Belo Wine Company, St. Helena; Birdstone Winery, Madera; Carvalho Family Winery, Clarksburg; Chateau Routon Winery, El Dorado County; Deaver Vineyards, Amador County; J. Pedroncelli Winery, Geyserville; Kapiniaris Vineyard/Stama Winery, Lodi; Prager Winery and Port Works, St. Helena, Pessagno Winery, Salinas; Quady Winery, Madera; Renwood Winery, Amador County; Sogno Winery, El Dorado County; and the only current member outside California, Glunz Family Winery in Graylake, Illinois.

Young said the new organization faces several challenges, including building its membership. He estimates there are about 500 California wineries producing some type of wine that fits the category. SFWA hopes to identify producers throughout the country to provide assistance in promoting their products through information on the SFWA website and links to winery websites to assist with sales. Other plans include participating in tasting events and educational sessions held by other organizations such as the Society of Wine Educators, and holding an annual tasting event. SFWA loosely defines a “sweet” wine as having 2% or more residual sugar. A longer-term goal and challenge is to work with TTB on labeling issues, and as Young says, “to standardize definitions for sweet and fortified wines in domestic terms.”

As part of its educational efforts, SFWA produced “Savor the Flavor Recipes,” a booklet (given to all tasting event attendees) of dessert recipes from member wineries designed for pairing with wines poured at the event. The tasting included sweet dessert varietals such as Muscat Canelli, Orange Muscat, and Muscat Hamburg (more commonly called Black Muscat); late harvest varietal wines made from Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Chenin Blanc picked at 30+ degrees Brix; and fortified port wines made from single varieties, such as Syrah and Petite Sirah, and in the traditional Porto style made from blends of Portuguese varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cao, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Madeira, and Souzao.

A few of the more unusual offerings included:
–Renwood’s Zinfandel ice wine, made from Amador Zinfandel picked at high brix, with the grapes frozen to increase concentration and then fermented with minimal skin contact to produce a rich, sweet, lightly rust colored wine;
–A fortified Muscat Canelli and a fortified Orange Muscat produced by Sogno of El Dorado County;
–Prager’s white port “Aria,” a fortified Chardonnay;
–Quady’s newest wine, “Deviation,” a fortified Orange Muscat infused with scented geranium and Damiana, a botanical herb known in Mexico and South America for its aphrodisiac properties.

Quady is one of the few U.S. wineries that specializes in dessert wines. It offered the most diverse selections at the event, with ports made with traditional Portuguese varieties, fortified muscats, low alcohol (4-5%) muscats under the Electra label, and its Vya label vermouths that are fortified wines infused with botanical scents that can be enjoyed alone as apertifs, or mixed into cocktails.

In addition to producer/grower members, SFWA also has an associate membership category for retailers, distributors, suppliers, wine educators and other wine professionals. More information is available at the SFWA website (www.sweetandfortifiedwine.org), or by contacting Ken Young at PO Box 193, Applegate, CA 95703, 530-878-3854, or sweetandfortified@sbcglobal.net.

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