These are wines, as they are produced from grapes, but they are special in every sense. Because of the law, their special winemaking techniques and their taste they are very unusual drinks. Besides sparkling wines (which are considered special because the techniques which produce the mousse are different from traditional winemaking) the wines in this category are the dried grape wines, strong sweet (or fortified) wines (vino liquoroso) and aromatized wines.
Fortified wines are those that may legally have alcohol added during production. Some Italian D.O.C.s allow production of a strong sweet wine from a given grape (generally from aromatic grapes such as Malvasia, Muscat, Aleatico and so on). By law they must have an alcohol content of 15° to 22°. There are also sweet wines, also called fortified wines, which are unique in the world of wine. Marsala is an Italian example, but there are other well-known ones such as port and Jerez (sherry).
Aromatized wines are a base wine to which alcohol, sugar and herb infusions or extracts are added. This is the case for vermouth and also for Barolo Chinato, which is produced by adding cinchona.