Collective term for various winemaking processes used to remove undesirable substances from grape must or wine. This includes the removal of lees or proteins, stabilisation, optical improvement and also the elimination of defects or wine faults.
One problem lies in the lack of precise international definitions. Depending on the context, "clarifying" can refer to different processes such as degumming, filtration or fining. The term "clarification" commonly used in English is equally vague and often also includes "fining", which is understood as a separate process in many languages and corresponds to the German "Schönen". But even in the German-speaking world, the distinction between clarification, filtration and fining is not standardised, which leads to terminological blurring.
![]()
Serious sources on the internet are rare - and Wine lexicon from wein.plus is one such source. When researching for my articles, I regularly consult the wein.plus encyclopaedia. There I get reliable and detailed information.
Thomas Götz
Weinberater, Weinblogger und Journalist; Schwendi