Volatile Acidity

All wines have a tiny amount of volatile acidity, usually, with any luck, imperceptible. In excess, V.A., as it is known, causes a wine to have an unpleasantly sharp, vinegary aroma. Volatile acidity occurs because unwanted bacteria have produced acetic acid, the result of poor winemaking.

A wine that has taken on baked or cooked flavors as a result of being exposed to high temperatures for a sustained period of time is known as:

A. Volatilized

B. Maderized

C. Caramelized

D. Autolyzed

Maderized is the term for a wine that has been subject to a long period of heat. The best-known example is Madeira, a wine that is both maderized and oxidized. Historically in the case of Madeira, the wine was stored for decades in producers’ attics which built up tremendous heat under the Madeiran sun. Today, Madeira wine is more commonly heated slowly in tanks (a process known as estufagem) until it reaches temperatures as high as 130 degrees F. Needless to say, table wines should not be maderized.

“Partly we recovered the old familiar things, partly we created something wondrous and new.”

—OVID
Roman poet (43 BC – 17 AD) from Metamorphoses

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