Fino sherry

Refermented with aerobic yeast light (white) flor (Fino) sherries, Spanish man2anilla types, California (etc) submerged culture dry sherry. See... 

The wine yeast, Saccharomyces fermentati, is able to form a film or veil on the surface of dry white wines of about 15-16% alcohol. This yeast produces agreeable smelling and tasting substances which dissolve in the wine and give it the aroma and flavor characteristic of Spanish fino sherries. To provide itself with energy for growth while in the film form on the surface of the wine, the yeast utilizes some of the oxygen from the atmosphere above the wine in the partially filled butt or barrel to oxidize some of the ethyl alcohol from the wine. The ethyl alcohol of the wine is not completely metabolized to carbon dioxide and water, however, but is oxidized to acetaldehyde—probably the principal compound in the complex mixture responsible for the aroma of this type of appetizer wine. 

Martinez, P., Perez Rodriguez, L., and Benitez, T. (1997). Evolution of flor yeast population during the biological aging of fino Sherry wine. Am. ]. Enol. Vitic. 48,160-168. 

Zea, L., Moyano, L., Moreno, J., and Medina, M. (2007). Aroma series as fingerprints for biological aging in fino sherry-type wines.. Sci. Food Agric. 87, 2319-2326. 

Muller, C., Kneper, R., and Webb, A. (1978). 1,3-Dioxanes and 1,3-dioxolanes as constituents of the acetal fraction of Spanish fino sherry. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 29, 207-212. 

Dominguez, C., Guillen, D.A. and Barroso, C.G. (2002) Determination of volatile phenols in fino sherry wines, Anal. Chim. Acta, 458, 95-102. 

In this study, commercial Fino sherry wines (5 years of biological ageing) which were selected by expert tasters as more representative were used. Also, selected strains of S. cerevisiae and S, bayamis (Kurtzman Fell, 1998) were used. These yeast strains, corresponding to the S. cerevisiae capensis and bayanus races in the Kreger-van Rij classification (1984), were isolated from a velum of industrial wine produced in the Montilla-Moriles region. The criteria and tests for their selection have been reported in previous papers (Guijo et al., 1986 Moreno et al., 1991). 

As noted previously, the main types of sherry (fino, oloroso, and amon-tillado) are produced employing different conditions. These differences result in significantly different polyphenolic composition. In the case of fino-type sherries, the layer of yeast that grows in the surface of the wine (flor velum) preserves its pale color. The velum limits the exposure of the wine from oxygen (Baron et ah, 1997). Hence, fino wines mature in a markedly reductive environment. 

Garcia-Moreno, M. V. and Garcia-Barroso, C. (2002). Comparison of the evolution of low molecular weight phenolic compounds in typical Sherry wines Fino, Amontillado, and Oloroso. J. Agric. Food Chem. 50, 7556-7563. 

Webb and Noble (12) reported on the aroma constituents of the four general types of sherry. Fino, oloroso, submerged culture, and baked sherries have significant differences in aroma constituents. Many constituents were identified, but much more research is needed to correlate volatile components with sensory perceptions. 

Amontillado wines are obtained in a two-step process involving biological aging under the same conditions to those of fino wines, followed by fortification and oxidative aging as in oloroso wines. Amontillado wines are thus the oldest and most valued of the three sherry types by virtue of their acquiring a more complex flavour than the other two. 

Fig. 1. Sherry-type wines Fino, Amontillado, Oloroso and Pedro Ximi nez...

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