Fortified wine

Fortified wine is a wine to which a distilled spirit, usually brandy, is added. Many different styles of fortified wine have been developed, including Port, Sherry, Madeira, Marsala, Commandaria wine, and the aromatized wine Vermouth.

Production

The original reason for fortifying wine was to preserve it, since ethanol is a natural antiseptic. Even though other preservation methods now exist, fortification continues to be used because the process can add distinct flavors to the finished product.

Although grape brandy is most commonly added to produce fortified wines, the additional alcohol may also be neutral spirit that has been distilled from grapes, grain, sugar beets, or sugarcane. Regional appellation laws may dictate the types of spirit that are permitted for fortification.

The source of the additional alcohol and the method of its distillation can affect the flavor of the fortified wine. If neutral spirit is used, it will usually have been produced with a continuous still, rather than a pot still.

Vin

Vin may refer to:

People

Vincent

Other or indeterminate

Vine (demon)

In demonology, Vine (also known as vain) is an Earl and also a King of Hell, commanded by Satan. He is known to be the trickiest, deadliest demon. He has the power to take one's soul without permission. He can tell present, past and future, discover witches and hidden things, create storms and make the water rough by means of these storms, bring down walls and build towers.

This demon is portrayed as a lion holding a snake in his hand and riding a black horse.

The etymology of his name seems to be stemming from the Latin word 'vinea', vine, which is also the name given to an ancient war machine made of wood and covered with leather and branches, used to overthrow walls.

Other spellings: Viné, Vinea.

See also

Sources

Vehicle identification number

A vehicle identification number, commonly abbreviated to VIN, or chassis number, is a unique code including a serial number, used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles, towed vehicles, motorcycles, scooters and mopeds as defined in ISO 3833.

VINs were first used in 1954. From 1954 to 1981, there was no accepted standard for these numbers, so different manufacturers used different formats.

In 1981, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States standardized the format. It required all over-the-road-vehicles sold to contain a 17-character VIN, which does not include the letters I (i), O (o), or Q (q) (to avoid confusion with numerals 1 and 0).

There are vehicle history services in several countries that can help potential car owners use VINs to find vehicles that are defective or have been written off. See the used car article for a list of countries where this service is available.

VIN: classification

There are at least four competing standards used to calculate VIN.