WINE GLOSSARIES (F-G)

FALL BRIGHT A liquid that becomes limpid after cloudy matter falls as sediment to the bottom of the vessel is said to fall bright. FALL OVER A wine that goes past its peak and starts to decline at a relatively young age, and at a faster than normal rate, is said to fall over. FARMYARDY A term used by many people to describe a wine, quite often Chardonnay or Pinot, that has matured beyond its initial freshness of fruit, past the desired stage of roundness and the pleasing phase when it acquires certain vegetal undertones. The wine is still healthy and drinkable, and for some it is at the very peak of perfection. FAT A wine full in body and extract. It is good for any wine to have some fat, but fat in an unqualified sense can be derogatory and no wine should be too fat, as it will be flabby or too blowzy. FATTY ACIDS A term sometimes used for volatile acids. FEMININE A subjective term used to describe a wine with a preponderance of delicately attractive qualities, rather than weight or strength. Descibes a wine of striking beauty, grace, and finesse, with a silky texture and exquisite style. FERMENTATION The biochemical process by which enzymes secreted by yeast cells convert sugar molecules into almost equal parts of alcohol and carbonic gas. FERTILIZER A chemical product used to enrich the soil with one or more of the three basic requirements for all plant life: potassium (for fruit development and general plant metabolism), phosphorus (for root development), and nitrogen (for leaf development). Technically the term also refers to manure, compost, and other natural means of soil enrichment. FEUILLETTE (Fr.) A small Burgundian barrel with a capacity of 114 liters (30 gallons); in Chablis this is 132 liters (35 gallons). FIELD BLEND, FIELD MIX The best description I have seen for this is “a wine recipe planted in the ground.” It is not a homogenous vineyard planted to a single grape variety (of which there may be several different clones), but a vineyard planted with a collection of grape varieties that reflect traditional Old World practices of several generations ago. The advantage is that if a disease or disorder affected one variety, the others would probably pull through unscathed. The disadvantage, however, is that the different varieties do not ripen at the same time; this was not a problem in the old days, however, since it was common practice to make several tries or sweeps through the vineyards, picking only the ripe grapes and cutting out any rotten ones. FILTER, FILTRATION The removal of suspended matter. There are four basic methods of filtration: depth filtration (also known as earth filtration); pad filtration (also known as sheet filtration), membrane filtration (also known as microporous filtration), and crossflow filtration. There is also centrifugal filtration, which is not filtration in the pure sense but achieves the same objective of removing unwanted particles suspended in wine or grape juice. FINESSE That elusive, indescribable quality that separates a fine wine from those of lesser quality. FINE WINES Quality wines, representing only a small percentage of all wines produced. FINING The clarification of fresh grape juice or wine is often sped up by the use of various fining agents that operate by an electrolytic reaction to fine out oppositely charged matter. FINISH The quality, and a person’s enjoyment, of a wine’s aftertaste FIRM Refers to a certain amount of grip. A firm wine is a wine of good constitution, held up with a certain amount of tannin and acidity. FIRST PRESSING The first pressing yields the sweetest, cleanest, clearest juice. FIXED ACIDITY This is the total acidity less the volatile acidity. FIXED SULFUR The principal reason why SO2 (sulfur dioxide) is added to grape juice and wine is to prevent oxidation, but only free sulfur can do this. Upon contact with wine, some SO2 immediately combines with oxygen and other elements, such as sugars and acids, and is known as fixed or bound sulfur. What remains is free sulfur, capable of combining with molecules of oxygen at some future date. FLABBY The opposite of crisp, referring to a wine lacking in acidity and consequently dull, weak, and short. FLASH PASTEURIZATION A sterilization technique that should not be confused with full pasteurization. It involves subjecting the wine to a temperature of about 176°F (80°C) for between 30 and 60 seconds. FLAT 1. A sparkling wine that has lost all of its mousse. 2. A term that is interchangeable with flabby, especially when referring to a lack of acidity on the finish. FLESHY This term refers to a wine with plenty of fruit and extract and implies an underlying firmness. FLOR (Sp.) A scumlike yeast film that naturally occurs and floats on the surface of some sherries as they mature in part-filled wooden casks. It is the flor that gives Fino Sherry its inimitable character. FLURBEREINIGUNG (Ger.) A modern viticultural method of growing vines in rows that run vertically up and down slopes, rather than across in terraces. GARRIGUE (Fr.) A type of moorland found in Languedoc-Roussillon. GASOLINE, GASOLINE-LIKE With some bottle-age, the finest Rieslings have a vivid bouquet that some call gasoline-like. This character has an affinity with various zesty and citrussy odors, but many lemony, citrussy, zesty smells are totally different from one another and the Riesling’s gasoline character is both singular and unmistakable. As great Riesling matures, so it also develops a honeyed character, bringing a classic, honeyed-gasoline richness to the wine. GELATINE A positively charged fining agent used for removing negatively charged suspended matter in wines, especially an excess of tannin. GENERIC Describes a wine, usually blended, of a general appellation. GENEROUS A generous wine gives its fruit freely on the palate, while an ungenerous wine is likely to have little or no fruit and, probably, an excess of tannin. All wines should have some degree of generosity. GENUS The botanical family Ampelidaceae has 10 genera, one of which, Vitis, through the subgenus Euvites, contains the species Vitis vinifera, to which all the famous wine-making grape varieties belong. GEOSMIN A chemical compound sometimes found in wine; responsible for the characteristic earthiness of beets and the earthy taste of some potatoes. GLUGGY Easy to guzzle. GOOD GRIP A healthy structure of tannin supporting the fruit in a wine. GOUT DE TERROIR (Fr.) Literally “taste of earth,” a term that denotes a particular flavor imparted by certain soils—although not necessarily the taste of the soil itself—in a wine. GRANDE MARQUE (Fr.) Literally a great or famous brand. In the world of wine, the term Grande Marque is specific to Champagne and applies to members of the Syndicat de Grandes Marques, which include, of course, all the famous names.

FLYING WINEMAKER The concept of the flying winemaker was born in Australia, where due to the size of the country and the staggered picking dates, highly sought-after consultants Brian Croser (now Petaluma) and Tony Jordan (now Green Point) would hop by plane from harvest to harvest. Riding on the success of Australian wines in the UK market, other Australian wine wizards began to stretch their wings, flying in and out of everywhere from Southern Italy to Slovakia, usually at the behest of British supermarkets. Like the spread of Chardonnay and Cabernet, the flying winemakers were at first welcomed by wine writers, then turned upon for standardizing wine wherever they went. The truth is that before the arrival of international grapes and international winemakers, the peasant cooperatives in these countries had no idea that they could even produce wines to compete on the international market. Now that they have established a certain standard with known grape varieties and modern technology, they are beginning to turn to their roots to see what indigenous varieties might have the potential to produce more expressive wines. Few winemakers do more flying than Moët & Chandon’s Richard Geoffroy, but the term is usually attributed to the mercenaries of the trade, who work for a supermarket, a supplier to a supermarket, or more than one company. Well-known flying winemakers include Peter Bright, Nick Butler, Steve Donnelly, Michael Goundrey, Lynette Hudson, Jacques and François Lurton, Geoff Merril, Kym Milne, Martin Shaw, Brenden Smith, Adrian Wing, and John Worontschak. The late, famous Bordeaux professor Peynaud avoided the flying-winemaker tag, as has Ribereau-Gayon, despite the fact that they have each consulted for more companies in more countries over more years than the entire flock of flying winemakers listed above, perhaps because today’s mercenaries have a more hands-on approach to their job than was traditional for consultants in the past. FOLIAR FEEDS Plant nutrients that are sprayed directly onto, and are absorbed by, the foliage. FORTIFIED Fortification with pure alcohol (usually very strong grape spirit of 77 to 98 percent) can take place either before fermentation (as in Ratafia de Champagne and Pineau des Charentes), during fermentation (as in port and Muscat de Beaumes de Venise), or after fermentation (as in sherry). FOUDRE (Fr.) A large wooden cask or vat. FOXY The very distinctive, highly perfumed character of certain indigenous American grape varieties that can be sickly sweet and cloying to unconditioned palates. FREE SULFUR The active element of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in wine, produced by free sulfur combining with intruding molecules of oxygen. FREMANTLE DOCTOR Also known as the “Freo Doctor,” this afternoon sea breeze brings a cooling relief to better parts of the Swan Valley in Western Australia. Canberra Doctor. FRENCH PARADOX In 1991, Morley Safer, host of the CBS show 60 Minutes, screened a program about the so-called “French Paradox.” This described how the high-cholesterol-consuming, high-alcoholdrinking, low-exercising French have a very low mortality rate from heart disease compared to healthconscious Americans, who have low-cholesterol diets, exercise frequently, and drink relatively little alcohol. Part of the explanation was attributed to the Mediterranean diet, in which milk plays a negligible role and wine—particularly red wine—a very important one. Although it is a complete food for the young, milk is unnatural for adults, who cannot digest it properly. The more milk an adult drinks (and Americans are particularly high consumers of milk), the greater the risk of cardiovascular disease, while three glasses of wine a day has a proven protective effect against cardiovascular disease. FRESH Describes wines that are clean and still vital with youth. FRIABLE Term used to describe a soil structure that is crumbly or easily broken up. FRIZZANTE (It.) Semi-sparkling. FRIZZANTINO (It.) Very lightly sparkling, between still and semi-sparkling (i.e., perlant). FRUIT Wine is made from grapes and must therefore be 100 percent fruit, yet a fruity flavor depends on the grapes used having the correct combination of ripeness and acidity. FRUITCAKE This is a subjective term for a wine that tastes, smells, or has the complexity of the mixed dried-fruit richness and spices found in fruitcake. FUDER (Ger.) A large oval cask with a capacity of 1,000 liters (265 gallons), more prevalent in Mosel areas than in those of the Rhine. FULL This term usually refers to body, as in “fullbodied.” However, a wine can be light in body yet full in flavor. FULLY FERMENTED A wine that is allowed to complete its natural course of fermentation and so yield a totally dry wine. FÛT (Fr.) A wooden cask, usually made of oak, in which wines are aged, or fermented and aged. GRASSY Often used to describe certain Gewürztraminer, Scheurebe, and Sauvignon wines portraying a grassy type of fruitiness. GREEN Young and tart, as in Vinho Verde. It can be either a derogatory term or simply a description of a youthful wine that might well improve. GREEN PRUNING Pruning is a bit of a misnomer, as this is really a method of reducing yields by thinning out the potential crop when the grapes are green (unripe) by cutting off a certain percentage of the bunches, so that what remains achieves a quicker, greater, and more even ripening. Also called summer pruning. GRIP This term applies to a firm wine with a positive finish. A wine showing grip on the finish indicates a certain bite of acidity in white wines and of tannin in red wines. GRIPPY Good grippy tannins imply ripe tannins that have a nice tactile effect without seeming in the least firm, harsh, or austere. GROSSLAGE (Ger.) A wine area in Germany that is part of a larger district or Bereich. GROWTH. GUTSY A wine full in body, fruit, extract, and— usually—alcohol. The term is normally applied to wines of fairly ordinary quality. GUZZLY This term is synonymous with gluggy. GRAFT The joint between the rootstock and the scion of the producer vine. GRAND CRU (Fr.) Literally “great growth.” In regions such as Burgundy, where the term’s use is strictly controlled, it has real meaning (in other words, the wine should be great relative to the quality of the year), but in other winemaking areas where there are no controls, it will mean little. GRAND VIN (Fr.) Normally used in Bordeaux, this term applies to the main wine sold under the château’s famous name and it will have been produced from only the finest barrels. Wines excluded during this process go into second, third, and sometimes fourth wines that are sold under different labels. GRAPEY This term may be applied to an aroma or flavor that is reminiscent of grapes rather than wine, and is a particular characteristic of German wines and wines made from various Muscat or Muscat-like grapes.