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Wine Glossary: F

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Fermentation
See alcoholic fermentation and malolactic fermentation.

Filtration
A finishing process, performed before bottling. The wine is filtered in order to remove solid impurities, such as dead yeast cells. Although it may help to clarify the wine, it is also accused of stripping wine of flavour and character, and there is a vogue towards very light filtration or even no filtration at all. It differs from fining which removes soluble materials.

Fining
A finishing process, performed before bottling. A coagulant such as bentonite, isinglass or egg white is added to the wine to collect proteins and other undesirable compounds. As with filtration, a process which removes solid matter from the wine, there is a vogue away from this practice which has been the focus of some controversy, especially when biological materials such as cow's blood was used.

Finish
A tasting term. The finish is how the wine tastes at the point of, and just after, swallowing. After finish comes the length. See also entry and midpalate.

Fino
A style of Sherry. Pale in colour, because it has been protected from oxidation from the thick coating of yeast known as flor. Best consumed as soon as possible after bottling as at this point the protection from oxidation is lost.

Flash pasteurisation
The application of a short burst of heat to the wine. The intention is to stabilise the wine, although there are obvious concerns about what effect this might have on the quality of the wine. Employed, controversially, by Louis Latour in Burgundy. See pasteurisation.

Flor
A yeast vital for making Sherry. It's presence on the surface of the wine protects it from oxidation, and such a wine may be bottled as a Fino or Manzanilla. When it dies, it sinks to the bottom of the barrel, and the resulting wine is an Amontillado. If no flor develops at all, the resulting wine is an Oloroso. Partial development of flor, which then dies, produces a rare style known as Palo Cortado.

Flying winemaker
A term that sprang up in the 1980s to describe a group of winemakers, chiefly Australian, that parachuted (not literally!) into Old World regions to work with local co-operatives or vignerons to improve the quality of the wines. They could work a vintage in the northern hemisphere without interfering with work back home in the southern hemisphere, where the harvest occurs six months earlier.

Fortification
The process of adding spirit to a wine. If this is done before completion of the alcoholic fermentation, as with Port, the unfermented sugars will cause the wine to be sweeter than would otherwise be the case. Added later, as is the case with Sherry, the wine will remain dry. In all cases the final alcohol content receives an obvious boost. The process is also used in the production of vin doux naturel.

Forward
A tasting term. This denotes a wine which is felt by the taster to be developing quickly, and is ready to drink before it might otherwise be expected. The opposite of backward.

Free-run wine
The free-run wine is the juice that runs off the vat without any pressing. The wine released by pressing the cap is known as press wine.

Glossary pages: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ