Fat
A descriptor that usually refers to the texture of a wine that is smooth, round and slippery on your palate. Often these wines are high in glycerine, low in acidity and generous in their fruit flavors. In the wine world, fat is usually a positive term … I like that.

Fatigue
When a wine is subjected to shaking and jostling, either through the winemaking process, or during shipping, it is said to become fatigued.

Fault
A fault in wine is a serious characteristic often caused by improper winemaking or wine storage. Examples include oxidation or cork taint, but not over-pricing. (The latter is a fault of the winery marketer, not the wine itself.) A fault can spoil the wine.

Fermentation
The process that turns grapes into wine. It is the metabolization of the sugars by the yeast, into alcohol, carbon dioxide and heat.

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.

Fined
A winemaking process to remove small particles from the wine in order to clarify it. Some vintners believe that this removes some flavor and body from the wine, and therefore do not use the technique. Their bottles may be labeled as “unfined” or “unfiltered.”

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.

Finesse
A wine with finesse exhibits elegance, refinement and delicacy. There is balance and harmony among its components.

Finish
The impression left in the mouth after a wine has been swallowed. To be good, it should be distinctive and memorable rather than watery or short (the flavour isn't sustained).

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.

Flinty
Flinty usually describes dry white wines, such as chablis and sancerre, with an aroma of flint striking steel. This character is believed to come from the limestone soil in which the grapes were grown and is a positive attribute.

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.

Flowery
A wine is said to be flowery when the aroma suggests flowers.

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 wine which is felt to be developing quickly and is ready to drink before it might otherwise be expected.

Fragile
This doesn’t refer to the emotional stability of wine lovers who open their $350 bottle of cabernet to discover it’s corked. Rather this describes an older wine, fully mature, but of such age that it's declining. Its aromas can be fleeting and therefore it’s often better to pour it straight from the bottle into the glass rather than decant it and risk losing those delicate aromas and flavors. Carpe diem and don’t decant ‘em!

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.

Fruit bomb
A wine that’s fruit-forward in that the fruit aromas dominate over others. The wine may lack balance, with too much fruit for the wine’s acidity. Think Jim Carrey rather than Jeremy Irons, or Carmen Electra not Helen Mirren.

Fruity
An attractive fruit flavour that comes from healthy, ripe grapes.

Full-bodied
Wine that has a full proportion of flavor and alcohol. It is also know as big or fat.