SFWA Recommended Sweet and Fortified Wine Terminology Guidelines

Domestic Fortified Port-style Wines
a. Must be fortified with grape wine spirits.
b. “Fortified” is any grape wine blended with wine grape spirits achieving an alcohol level of 18% - 24%.
c. “Light Fortified” refers to any grape wine blended with wine grape spirits achieving an alcohol level less than 17.9% alcohol.
d. There is no recommended standard for residual sugar (RS).
e. “Ruby” is the term for a fortified port-style wine released with less than six years of barrel aging.
f. “Tawny” is the term for a fortified port-style wine released with a minimum of six years barrel aging.
g. “Vintage” is a term for a fortified port-style wine declared “vintage” by the producer, showing the vintage date on the label, and aged in barrel for no more than three years.
h. “Vintage Character” is a term for a fortified port-style wine not vintage dated and aged in barrel four to six years.

Off-dry, Semi-sweet, Sweet Unfortified Wines
a. “Off-dry” is defined as any unfortified wine with residual sugar (RS) levels between .5 and 1.9%
b. “Semi-sweet” is defined as any unfortified wine with residual sugar (RS) levels between 2.0 and 6.0%
c. “Sweet” is defined as any unfortified wine with residual sugar (RS) levels above 6.0%

While these terminology guidelines are highly recommended and will be communicated to the domestic sweet and fortified wine industry, adoption by individual producers is strictly voluntary.