Winemaking Terms - Filtering to Flor

Filtering:

The process of removing yeast cells and other microorganisms that could spoil the wine, as well as any remaining sediment that would keep it from being crystal clear, by pumping the wine through cellulose pads, pads lined with diatomaceous earth, or especially fine membranes.

Fining:

Removing suspended solids from a cloudy wine by temperature adjustment, blending with an already cleared wine of the same variety, filtering, or adding a fining material such as egg white, milk, gelatine, casein, or bentonite.

Finish:

The final flavor, texture and impression that remains on the palate after a wine is swallowed.

Fixed Acids:

Those acids occurring naturally in the grape or fruit base, those added by the vintner, and those acids created furing fermentation which are stable -- fixed. In grapes and grape wine, the major fixed acid is tartaric, followed by malic, then citric, succinic, and lactic, although the latter three are not necessarily listed in the order of their prominence in the finished wine as they can vary greatly. Succinic, for example, is usually more naturally prominent in grape wines than citric.

Flat:

A taste denoting a wine with insufficient total acidity. The taste is truly flat, lifeless, medicinal, and wholely wrong. Technically, it is the absence of the sour taste. This taste appears in wines with a pH greater than 3.75 and a titratable acidity less than 0.5%. The opposite (the taste of excessive total acidity) is Acidulous.

Flocculation:

The process of settling or compacting of lees or sediment. Lightly or loosely flocculated lees are less dense than tightly or compactly flocculated ones. Good flocculation refers to greater density.

Flor:

Spanish word for "flower" which refers to the off-white yeast that develops naturally on certain wines after they're fermented and blocks further exposure of the wine to air. Flor is important in the making of fino- and amontillado-style sherries. Flor will not grow on wines with more than 16% alcohol.

Source: Jack Keller

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