Angelica wine is a historic

sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...

fortified wine Fortified wine is a wine to which a distilled spirit, usually brandy, has been added. In the course of some centuries, winemakers have developed many different styles of fortified wine, including port, sherry, madeira, Marsala, Commanda ...

usually from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

made typically from the Mission grape. It is often served as a

dessert wine Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in the United Kingdom, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal ...

. Some varieties consist of the unfermented grape juice fortified with

brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured with ...

or clear spirit immediately after pressing. Others are made like

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

, where the only partially fermented

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

, still retaining a large amount of sugar, is infused with brandy. The relatively high alcohol of the brandy arrests the fermentation, leaving a fortified wine high in alcohol and high in residual sugar (usually about 10 to 15%). It is typically made from 50% Mission wine and 50% Mission brandy. Angelica dates to the Mission period in California and its name is thought to be taken from the city of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. It was produced by the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

missionaries and is one of the first wines made in the state. Several California producers continue to produce Mission-based Angelica. The wine is sometimes made in a simple style and is inexpensive. Some is made with great care from ancient vines and can be quite expensive. Bottles of Angelica as old as 1870 can still be found and show great distinction.

References

{{Wines California wine Fortified wine Dessert wine Spanish missions in California

Further reading

References