Fortified Wine
Fortified wine has had a distilled spirit, usually Brandy, added, traditionally as a form of preservative. The most common forms of fortified wine that we see today are Sherry, Port, Madeira and the sweet Vins Doux Naturels of the South of France. In Sherry, the spirit is usually added after fermentation, so most Sherries start dry. In the other examples typically the spirit is used to stop fermentation, so the wines retain a considerable amount of sugar: the end results will taste sweet.