Flor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Spanish yeast. For the historical/genealogical abbreviation, see Floruit, and for the argentine pop singer, see Flor (singer).
Flor (Spanish and Portuguese for 'flower') is a variety of yeast found only in the region of Andalucía in southern Spain, and important in the manufacture of sherry.
Sherry flor or flower or wine flower: film of yeast cells which grows spontaneously during maturation on the surface of fermented musts, which will later be used for the making of certain types of Sherry especially Finos and Amontillados. It protects the wine from contact with the air, in that way avoiding oxidation and preventing the wine from becoming vinegary.
Sherry flor is not a flower at all, but is a rather repulsive-looking film of yeast cells that covers the surface of the must in most of the butts some two months after the vintage though often it does not appear until the following April or May. Once it appears, the flor grows rapidly to form a wrinkled layer (velo,film) on the interface of the wine.
In wine making it is essential to keep young wines away from exposure to air by sealing in barrels, to avoid infection by bacteria and yeasts that tend to spoil it. However, in the manufacture of sherries, the slightly porous oak barrels are deliberately filled only about five-sixths full with the young wine, leaving "the space of two fists" empty to allow the flor yeast to take form and the bung is not completely sealed. The "velo de flor" on top of the wine looks like a thick white foam.
The flor favors cooler climates and higher humidity, so the sherries produced in the coastal Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María have a thicker cap of flor than those produced inland in Jerez. The yeast gives the resulting sherry its distinctive fresh taste, with residual flavours of fresh bread.
Depending on the development of the wine, it may be aged entirely under the veil of flor to produce a fino or manzanilla sherry, or it may be fortified to limit the growth of flor and undergo oxidative aging to produce an amontillado or oloroso sherry.
 |
This wine-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
