Sweet wine from Bali

 

As the label tells you, Sweet Syrah comes from Bali.

13%. 

Sweet Syrah.

You can visit their vineyard in Bali, Indonesia.

Useful Website

hattenwines.com

Delights Of Sweet Whites, Italian Wine tasting, matching and comparing, Prosecco, Champagne, More

 

Italian Zonin1821 History

I went to the Zonin1821 portfolio tasting 2026 event. Zonin1821 is an Italian company, in the wine business, founded by the Zonin family in 1821, long before I was born. They started in the Veneto area, famous for the port of Venice, and Prosecco wine, and the Zonin bottle label is associated with this region.

They set up Zonin UK in 1998. How come I had never heard of them? This event aimed to put that right and it did. 

They now have wines from Europe, France, Spain and Italy, and the Lebanon,  South Africa, Chile and Argentina, and going south, from South Africa and New Zealand.

At a walk around tasting, I started with my favourite, Prosecco. From Italy. I compared a couple of them.

Then I went on to Asti, from Italy.

A couple of sweet Moscatos, muscats, sweet, of course.

Then a couple of Champagnes, from France, of course, to compare with Prosecco.

Wine Tasting

The walk around wine tasting of their wines had the usual arrangement of a good event, spittoons scattered about, because you could not drink many wines without ending up dancing on the table, falling asleep, or, as the old joke goes, under the table or under the host.

Some people like to taste wines without food, the better to isolate and concentrate on the aroma and savour the flavour of the wine. Others say, to be healthy, sober and sane, they prefer to taste wine with matching food. For them, a treat was to come. A chance to sit down, contemplate the colour of the wine in the glass, sip the wine and take tiny bites of flavoursome food with each wine.

The Zonin1821 Pairing Atelier: An Interactive Tasting Experience

A rare novelty, a sit down event, a masterclass, not just the usual sipping of half a dozen or more wines, whilst listening to an expert and watching slides, but this time tasting seven wines with assorted small plates of  food, savoury - and sweet. 

We took the glass of each wine in turn, nibbling something from each plate of food, deciding which food went best with the wine. 

The fanned pear is on the left. The glasses are numbered on the paper sheet below. But we changed the order, putting the sweet wine last. We had letters, for the food? But sometimes one wine went with more than one food.

Practical Problems - Cutlery

At first I did not know how to divide up the food using spoons and a pastry fork. But the meat proved to be soft so you could tear it apart with fingers or the fork and spoon.

Practical Problems - Losing Your Catalogue

I had already lost my programme which had my marks out of 7 of all the wines I had liked at the walk around tasting. When you put down your programme book, beside a dozen others, to taste the wine, then look for your programme, where is yours?

Luckily I had taken photos of my favourite wines, so the bottle labels were my memory aids.

Next time I go to a wine tasting or event, I shall take a sticker with my name and phone number to put on my programme. That way I can see at a glance that a programme on the table is mine, before I leave. If I drop it, the finder can call me to let me know.

Note Taking Problems

Next, where should I make notes about food pairing? 

The slide show, early on, included a slide with a list of the foods, and a list of the wines. Very good.

I reckoned it would be easier and quicker when making notes for members of the audience to have the slide copied onto a handout. The food on the left of your tasting page. The wines on the right. Then draw a line between the wine and the food it matched. 

Or a list of all the matches. Circle your favourite. 

Or a tick box for each pairing. Give it marks out of 7. From 1 for not good to 7 for heavenly.

My effort to write down the name of the wine, three to six words, then the names of the food, each of which had three ingredients, meant I needed to see the slide with the names of food, and missed commentary whilst I was trying to list the names of the food and wines. 

I spoke to Federica afterwards, and she agreed that each time they held the event they could incorporate changes and improvements which would make it better and better, even better.

Solution - A Food and Wine Pairing Sheet

Meanwhile, I am thinking about printing off my own pairing sheets. I would carry them around on my red clipboard.

Fabulous Food  - And Wine Matching

The food was fabulous. My favourite was the fanned pear, with stilton cheese in a creamy mousse. The name of the chef was not mentioned. The chef or supplier deserves a mention.

Which came first, food or drink, when planning the pairing? I presumed the wine producers and promoters would have picked seven wines to promote and asked the chef to do a pairing. At very least they might have asked for food to match in colour, for the red wine,  the red meat, for white wines, white savouries, and a sweet dessert. 

In a restaurant the sommelier might be shown the dish of the day, or dishes of the day. The chef created or selected recipes using what he has found, fresh, seasonal and reasonably priced in the market. The sommelier then has to match up wines to the food. 

Many restaurant diners would pick the food first, then ask the sommelier for a wine to match.

At home you might have bought a new wine from the Zonin list, then wondered, what food can I cook to go with this?

Buying Zonin Wines On the Web

After I got home I searched on the internet for Zonin wines. Up popped their wines on Amazon. Quite reasonably priced. 

I also found their website. The group is very successful, an umbrella group, connected with wines all over Italy and other places.  In addition to the bottles with their own label, their portfolio includes wines with other labels.

What if you or one of your group cannot drink wine. In addition to those abstaining for religious reasons, people could be driving, taking pills, and you could have youngsters or cautious drinkers. I liked Zonin's refreshing Limoneto Spritz, sparkling wine with lemon juice. You can buy it from Amazon in a 75cl bottle, or in a collection of cans 25cl.

Low and No Alcohol

Whilst their entire collection was new to me, they were excited about what is new for them. They have kept pace with the trend towards low alcohol wines, and non alcohol wines, and wine not only in bottles, small bottles, but also in cans.

Training Sommeliers

They are training sommeliers, and their own staff worldwide, as well as wine writers, wine educators and influencers on pairing their wines with food. I tried six wines, whites, a rose, and reds, with six different savoury and sweet dishes.  

Denni di Rosa, left. Federica Zanghirella, Vice President of the UK Sommelier Association, centre. Christopher Burr MW, right.

Federica Zanghirella, Vice President of the UK Sommelier Association, left. Christopher Burr MW right.

Three Wise Wine Experts

Instruction and enlightenment came from three delightful personalities.

Federica Zanghirella Vice President of the UK Sommelier Association. Glamorous and efficient, explaining how we were to save the delicious food to have some with each wine. Reminding us how in educational sessions we were sometimes given salty and sweet morsel to demonstrate how wine tastes different with different foods.

Christopher Burr MW. A Master of Wine always has worldwide knowledge. A walking encyclopaedia of wine. 

Denni di Rosa BA, knowledgeable on the Italian region, his homeland, Zonin's global ambassador, was an impressive presence in stature and knowledge. He explained each wine in detail.

They all emphasized that matching the wine with food, and picking our favourite pairing, comparing our choices with those of the producers and experts and the majority opinion, was not a test, but should be fun.

Matching Wine With Food

We all wrote down which wine we thought suited which food, the best match, not only on colour, red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat or fish, sweet wine with dessert, but the wines might complement or contrast in flavour. Though the recommendations are a guidelines, a consensus of popular opinion, the fun of wine tasting and wine pairing is finding what you like, for a one off enjoyable surprise, but ideally something to add to your internal recipe book and shopping list.

I am a vintage customer, stuck in the Sixties, liking sweet wines, sparkling, white and rose. So my favourite pairing was the pear dessert with the sweet wine, Castello di Albola, Vin Santo del Chianti. From Tuscany. The wine variety was Trebbiano Toscano, Malvasia del Chianti. Size 50 c.

Here is Denni di Rosa. Proudly holding the wine I praised as my favourite.

My favourite wine paired with the pear dessert was from label Castello di Albola, Vin Santo Chinati Classico DOCG, varietal Trebbiano Toscano Malvasia del Chianti, 50 cl, costing more than £20. From Tuscany in Italy. On Amazon you can buy red or white wines with the same characteristic grand house on the label.

Useful Websites On Zonin Wine

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Castello-Albola-Santo-Chianti-DOCG/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=zonin

https://www.bottledandboxed.com/product/6697_zonin-prosecco-brut-millesimato-doc-75cl

https://www.zonin1821.com/en/

zonin.co.uk

Sommelier Association

https://www.uksommelierassociation.com/

Wiki on wines - Vinopedia

https://vinopedia.org/wiki/Indication_G%C3%A9ographique_Prot%C3%A9g%C3%A9e_(IGP)

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Vietnamese Wine from Ladora Winery at Hungry Hanoi Restaurant, Hanoi

Vietnam Flag.

We ordered white sparkling wine at Hungry Hanoi Restaurant in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, in the north.

Hungry Hanoi business card. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Sparkling white wine. Sweet finish (that's the technical term for after-taste). Very pleasant.

Wine educator Trevor Sharot is pleased with his purchase. A passion fruit lassi.

The menu tells you more about the Ladora winery. The lines of vines could be anywhere in the world, France or Chile, but you know this is Asia because the vineyard workers are wearing Vietnamese circular straw hats with points.

I preferred it to Prosecco (Brut - meaning dry). (Sparkling white wine is hard to find in Asia. The Chinese think red wine is a man's drink. The Prosecco we bought a bottle at the Balduzzi showroom - price about ten pounds sterling, which would have cost about six pounds in a supermarket in London, England.

Travel information
Restaurant
www.hungryhanoi.com

For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What's New At The Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire?

First Problem - Where To Sit
If you just want a cup of tea, you can sit in the lounge. If you arrive early for lunch or dinner - you might start wine tasting in the shop. You buy a card to put in the wine-dispensing machine, having added enough money to cover one or more drinks.

We went straight for the main dining room at the back of the hotel. Most people choose to sit by the windows. Go early and book and ask for a window seat if that's what you want. Some seats were by the windows overlooking the greenery and distant River Ouse.

However, it was such a drizzly day that I was happy to sit at a table for two, on a banquette backing the wall. That way my bag could be off the floor and beside me.

I admired the bottle cut in half, with the lower part forming a plant pot fitting the hotel theme of wine.

Second Problem - What To drink?

As you drive up to the creeper-covered hotel, you are reminded by signs that the historic building now contains a hotel, restaurant and wine shop. The owner is a master of wine. You often see him sitting tasting wines with somebody who could be a wine buyer or a wine seller.

The wine list is extensive. I could have had a Prosecco, a kir or kir royale, a cocktail, Champagne, a dry rose, red or white wine from all over Europe, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the Americas, north and south, and Australian and South African wines.

Dozens Of Delicious Drinks
I started with a sweet wine from the dessert list. You do have to ask for the pudding menu if you want to order a sweet dessert wine. We sweet wine drinkers are wise to this sort of subterfuge.

I remember I liked the Prosecco last time at this restaurant. However, this time I wanted to try something different. We were well attended by three members of staff who kept stopping to ask what we wanted to order. They weren't well co-ordinated - we once got the wrong drink, but they kept apologising and their relentless smiles were infectious.

They had been on staff wine tasting earlier in the day, which might have accounted for the smiles. I am particularly partial to smiling staff. Whatever they had drunk, it worked well. I do like it when staff know what is on the menu.

Best of all, when I dithered between two sweet wines, they brought me a small taste of each, and I was able to make a good decision. The two wines were very different, and although one was good enough, the other was just right, pure heaven.

I saved some of my sweet wine for where you were meant to drink it, to accompany dessert. Oddly enough I was able to savour it better earlier on, drinking the wine on its own.

Problem 2 - Which Food?

The old tapas tasting menu has gone? Will we find what we want?

Answer
Yes. The menu has an extensive list of main courses as well as sandwiches.

I went back to the old favourite of chicken and avocado sandwich. It comes with a green salad, and potato chips. I was tempted by something which had chips on the side. But with my eye on the bread pudding dessert, I felt that sandwich and bread pudding and chips would not make it past the diet police.

Such large sandwiches! My green salad was one of those impossible to cut so-called leaves which look like a tree. If you give up trying to cut it, and simply stuff it all into your mouth, it defies attempts to crush it and embarrassingly tries to climb out of your mouth, upwards, towards your nose and eyes.

I saved space for the dessert, bread pudding and this is the piece de resistance, with our only resistance being sharing one between two of us. It contains tangy orange. It comes up with cream. Divine dessert.

I went to wash my hands. The gel and moisturiser are a nice touch. The same brand, with different ingredients, is on sale on the rack outside the shop doorway.

Just inside the shop are sweet wines on your left, the tasting machine in the middle if you want to buy a card and have teeny tastes of a few more wines.

This visit they had some great accessories and gifts. I liked the dinosaur bottle opener. Most original were the sets of four legs for turning corks into bodies of animal figures, three sorts, a dog, legs plus plastic antlers for a reindeer. I regret not buying one.

The Old Bridge Hotel
1 High Street
Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire PE29 3TQ
tel:01480 424300
www.huntsbridge.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author and speaker.

The Old Bridge Hotel Restaurant, Huntingdon

Creeper clad Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England, is even more interesting inside. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem
Where to eat driving north of London towards Cambridge, near Huntingdon and St Ives?

Answer
The Old Bridge Hotel. Perfect. Great food. Entertaining.

Stories
We had already eaten twice at the wonderful Old Bridge Hotel, so we scoured around the internet for something new. We found the pretty area of St Ives on the river. Was it the same river, the river Ouse? Oozing charm?

St Ives
After you have tried the Old Bridge Hotel, pretty St Ives is worth a look on a good sunny day. We tried booking lunch in St Ives online. We found the Amore restaurant by the riverside. We assumed we had a reservation. Alas no.

Worse still, we arrived in pouring rain at pretty St Ives, near Cambridge, north east of London, an hour and a quarter from Harrow in north west London.

(St Ives near Cambridge is not to be confused with the other St Ives, another pretty place in Cornwall. Your internet search may bring up the Cornish St Ives first.)

We saw signs saying the area had won an award for blooms. I spotted flowers in a boat.

St Ives is a pretty old place, with narrow streets, nooky shops and swans on the river.
















Swans on the river at St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

Flowers on the riverside at St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

Alas the Amore restaurant was closed on Tuesday. (That's the second time in the last two weeks that we have been caught out on Tuesday. The first time was in Romania where the ski lift doesn't operate in summer in Tuesdays - see previous posts on Romania.)

St Ives, in our experience, is not car friendly. We passed the pedestrian area entrance, the narrow old bridge, Poundland, and a museum which is being renovated. We drove round and around trying to get in and trying to get out. We tried to get back again, then tried to get out again. By now we had not found a parking place next to a nice restaurant. The driver and passenger were both unwilling to park miles away and trudge up and down pedestrian only streets in pouring rain looking for a restaurant.

What about the Old Bridge Hotel? That has lots of tables and lots of parking.

Great light and lighting in the restaurant at the Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon.

The modern restaurant. at The Old Bridge Hotel. I loved the mirrors.

Downstairs to the cosy old fireplace and red chairs.

In the other direction is the clean, well-kept bar.

The Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon
You have a choice of three seating areas. This time we chose to sit upstairs in the restaurant at proper tables.

You can also sit at low tables in a lounge area.

The third choice is the bar area which has tables for two and a fireplace. Or the bar, where the bar stools have proper high supportive backs.

The bread and butter is free. The still or sparkling water is also complimentary.

The Old Bridge Hotel has scarily high prices on the a la carte menu. If you want to book a birthday or special occasion as one group did you can order an expensive meal.

However, if you are careful you can have a very good meal at more moderate prices.

Drinks

Sweet white wine. Loads more choices. Prosecco. Rosé. Kir Royal.

Red wine by the glass

Wines are offered by the bottle and lots of wines by the glass. I could have had a Prosecco. I found several sweet wines on the dessert section.

Sandwiches
Take a look at the sandwich menu. I had chicken and avocado sandwich. I was offered a brown or white bread. You can also have your sandwich hot or cold. Mine came up with crisps and very elegant.

Chicken and avocado sandwich, comes with great crisps and salad.

Pork pie with hard Lord Of The Hundreds cheese.

Lord Of The Hundreds Cheese

The Lord of the Hundreds cheese is made in England. The cheese is made from ewes' milk. A ewe is a female sheep. Only females produce milk. Ewe's cheese is more frequently found in Italian, Spanish and Basque areas because sheep tolerate heat whereas cows don't like heat and are more rarely found in hot countries.

Afterwards we shared a dessert.

Finally coffee comes with a biscotti. (A hard, thick, crunchy Italian biscuit.)

Finally, what makes a classy, comfortable restaurant and hotel? A ladies toilet with matching bottles of hand wash gel and moisturiser so you come out with soft, sweet smelling hands. Really puts you in a good mood.

Tips
Look around the wine shop. They have an Enomatic machine which enables you to try small tastes of several wines for lower prices than for a full glass. Lots of wine bottles are stacked in clearly labelled in easy to find sections.

E n o m a t i c machine for tasting several wines in small quantities at reduced prices.

Cricket ball key fobs. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The small number of novelties included cricket ball key fobs.

We chanced upon the hotel owner, John Hoskins, who is a master of wine. I had noticed a lot of well spoken people who I assumed were locals.

The English owner of The Old Bridge Hotel and Restaurant.

He told us that in addition many people stop at The Old Bridge Hotel, as they drive through. Why? Because Huntingdon is in the heart of England, at a crossroads. People stop as they drive east from Birmingham. Or north from London. Or south from the north of England to London.

The Old Bridge Hotel
1 High Street
Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire
PE29 3TQ
Tel: 01 480 424 300
Email: oldbridge@huntsbridge.co.uk
www.huntsbridge.com (For the restaurant and hotel.)
www.oldbridgewine.co.uk (For the wine shop.)

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to my posts.

The Best Sweet Riesling From Corney & Barrow

I love sweet wines. I like muscat grapes, dessert wines, cocktails such as vodka and orange and Baileys. I enjoy Prosecco and cava and Champagne as an aperitif. Most reds are strong and dry and bore me, so I am always looking for a medium sweet, a sweet, a sparkling a pink wine.

I was in heaven when I went to a wine tasting hosted by Corney and Barrow. First the venue is a delight, and easy to find. It's a hidden gem. We walked from crowded Liverpool Street station, which has McDonalds, a Caffe Nero with no toilet, and a large Wetherspoons pub (later you can read my previous post on the station). From the busy street outside we disappeared into a pedestrian alley, into a tree lined square with a view of the Gherkin, then through lanterns bordering the stairs with heaters overhead which looked like torches, reminiscent of a Roman stage set.

In the secluded, elegant candle-lit darkness was the Corney and Barrow Restaurant. Beyond that the private room with four wines. At the start was a table of Rieslings from 2015, only a year ago, the new wines, and already Corney and Barrow are running out of their allocation.

I'd had Riesling before. I have studied about 20 hours and then a day at WSET (Wine and Spirit Eduction Trust) taking the level one exam which is roughly equivalent to an NVQ (vocational qualification for people serving wines in shops or restaurants). My husband has taken levels two and three and is studying for the diploma which consists of about nine exams taken over two years or longer. So I am forever hearing, "You can smell the petrol in Riesling".

In the Sixties and Seventies, like the rest of the British wining and dining world, I was into sweet wines and drank Mateus Rose, Black Tower, and had no idea of any regions nor any grapes.

Later, it must be the case that most of the Rieslings I have tasted in my short knowledgeable era of wine tasting have come from Alsace. I have now, thanks to Corney and Barrow, discovered the Rieslings from the Mosel region. I am told that the Mosel region consists of blue slate banks on three rivers, and the region was known by the names of the three rivers and areas, until somebody decided to simplify the name to make it more memorable. So now the region and the wine growing area are called simply Mosel.

I must have tried a dozen wines, started with the driest ending with the sweetest, and every one of them was delicious. Just to see whether I was simply in a good mood, I went over to the other three sets of wines, dry reds. Did I like all of them? No. Not one of them.

I was most interested to hear about wines grown on the side of Mount Etna. Fascinating.

However, if I had to choose a wine to drink or buy it would now be a Riesling from the Mosel.
Corner and Barrow have several restaurants and attached bars with extensive wine lists. You can also buy wine from them. They have offices in London, other parts of England, Edinburgh, Hong Kong and Singapore. You can also find them on Facebook, twitter and Instagram.
www.candbscene.co.uk is their blog.
www.corneyandbarrow.com
More about the restaurant and bar in my next post.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Vineyard visit near Verona. Try sweet Recioto wine

What wine does to you: calories; inebriation; wine and water

What does wine do for you or to you? Here's some research:

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/understand-your-drinking/unit-calculator

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07czwhz/the-truth-about-8-alcohol

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3612346/The-video-shows-never-drink-stomach-Lack-food-leads-alcohol-absorbed-TWICE-fast.html

http://grapedeal.com/sweet-wine-fattening-dry-wine/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker.

Muscat - more mysteries

The Beaume to Venise muscat wine mentioned in a previous post has French dialect words on the label. The language is Occitan, probably from langue d'Oc - language and land of the Ocs.

I have pictures of another bottle of Muscat wine.

This one, usually, has the word muscat embossed in glass on the clear bottle which looks brown because of the brown colour wine inside the bottle.

Wines go brown as they age, like fruits such as apples.


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author, speaker.

Guess What These Place Names mean: Bury St Edmunds; Beaume de Venise, France.

I always try to check place names because it helps me to remember them, draws my attention to the spelling and points to places to visit, landmarks in the area. You might consider whether studying geography and history from books and the internet is a distraction from real life and work, a welcome entertainment, or a vital part of understanding the world.

Bury St Edmunds
Here are this week;s delightful discoveries. First I found in the Sunday Times (the British one, not one in Singapore) that the Place Bury St Edmund's is the burial place of Englands king Edmund, who was later made a saint, which brought the area huge amounts of medieval tourism.

Beaume de Venise
The second delightful discovery was when I ordered a glass of sweet muscat wine, Beaune de Venise. I knew muscat was a grape. That muscat wine is always sweet. But what did the name Beaune de Venise mean? De is French for of. I sent my sleuth's looking. I have a family member who is studying wine for an exam on wines of the world, level 4, examined by the Wines and Spirits Education Trust.

(I am toddling along behind. I passed level one, equivalent to an NVQ and requiring alone about 20 hours study and answering multiple choice questions after each chapter in a large booklet, following by a day of lectures, tasting and a final multiple choice exam, about 30 questions.)

My sleuth found out all sorts of history, going back through blogs on wine, getting academic permissions to read university articles not available to the public, and encyclopaedias on wine and history, including Jewish history. We read about the Italian popes in Southern France. The Jews in the area. The taxes paid.

The motto is q u e ben be u r a ... d i e u  v e i r a

I translate that at first glance as: who(ever) drinks well will see god.

The summary of the story of the origin of the word: Beame - an old word for cave. V e n i se was from the Latin, meaning a P r o  V I N C E, of Rome.  In Roman times. The word Provence means province of Rome.

So Beaume de Venise is the cave of the province.

I shall also always remember not just the wine but the meaning of the word Provence, a region of France, near the Italian border.  I envisage the Italians marching over the border to their province and having a nice glass of sweet wine from Beaume de Venise, the cave of the province.

Sweet wine has less alcohol converted into sugar. I thought that if you are a Roman soldier you deserve a drink, but you don't want to drink spirits and water it down or get over intoxicated. Tomorrow you have work to do. But tonight you can have a glass of sweet wine with your dinner, Beaume de Venise.

However, looking at the label, I am shocked to see that it is 15%, which to me is very high alcohol. No wonder you normally get a small portion of sweet wine at the end of a meal with your dessert. I thought it was because you had already had enough to drink or because the wine was expensive and the restaurant wants to give you less and they can get away with it because you are already full.

Misleadingly, the French words Vin Doux n a t u r e l do not mean wine which is soft or sweet and natural, nothing added. On the contrary, it means fortified wine, wine with added alcohol bringing it up to 15%.

Most wine I drink which is sweet is only 13%, sometimes 12 and a half per cent. Oo-er! Good thing I wasn't driving home.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, researcher, author, speaker.