Applications of natural ingredients in alcoholic drinks - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 373

Table 16.6 Grape must and similar sweeteners added to wines and fortifi ed wines

Sweetener Description Comments

Sweet reserve
(Süssreserve)

Sterile grape juice (often
∼84° Oe or ∼20° Brix)

Used mostly in England and Germany
(EU). Extra Total %ABV of sweetened
wine (= actual %ABV + potential %ABV
from Süssreserve) ≤ 4%. For quality wines
or QmP 1 wines, the Süssreserve is from
same quality region. No such restriction
for table wines or QbA 2 wines

Dulce Fortifi ed raisin must Used in Spain for sweetening and

colouring certain oloroso (Sherry) wines,
mainly for export

Color Concentrated grape must

Vinho surdo Fortifi ed concentrated

grape must

Used to sweeten a range Madeira wines to
certain degrees, from the cheapest
'cooking' Madeira to Verdelho and Bual

Musto cotto Concentrated grape must

Sifone Fortifi ed raisin must In Sicily, used to sweeten certain Marsala

wines, such as Superiore. A mixture of the
two (concia) is sometimes used

Arrope Concentrated grape must

Vino de color
(pantomina)

Highly concentrated must Used to sweeten and colour Málaga wines

Mistelle Grape must and grape

spirit

The ingredient added to produce sweet
vermouth

Notes:
1 QmP = Qualitätswein mit Prädikat.
2 QbA = Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete.

Fruit juice or pulps or concentrates, when fermented in a honey base, give a
type of mead called melomel. Honey is the source of fermentable sugar in the
making of mead and related drinks, popular in many Slavic countries, to which it
provides a host of fl avour compounds, depending on the source (acacia, heather,
lavender, etc.) (McKay et al. 2011c). Table 16.7 lists some fl avour components of
honey, most of which will be present in mead at low, sometimes trace levels.
Honey is forbidden in the EU as a wine sweetener (although it is allowed as a
sweetener of liqueurs - see Section 16.2.4), but in the UK it may be added to
'made' wine, which is called 'meade'.
Herbs, spices and bitter agents ('botanicals') are used to fl avour a large number
of 'aromatised wines' and wine-based apéritifs, the recipes for which are closely
guarded secrets (McKay et al. 2011d). The most famous of these drinks is vermouth
(from German 'Wermuth' - wormwood, a major ingredient), now made in many
countries, but originating in Piedmont (Italy) in the late eighteenth century. The
many vermouth companies have their own secret formulations, but a general scheme

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