I'm Reallyyy Over VA in Wine

Volatile Acidity: friend or foe?? TW: FLAW!

The other day, a friend and I opened a bottle of wine. A bright, beautiful orange colored wine. Neon almost. The kind you might see at a hip and cool wine bar. And then I poured it down the drain.

I tried to give it a chance* but honestly, it was undrinkable to me. It burned. It felt like drinking undiluted apple cider vinegar. I grimaced while I sipped, which I think should never happen when you drink wine. Wine should be a pleasurable experience.

The wine had awful amounts of volatile acidity (VA). To explain it simply, VA is the amount of volatile acids in a wine, primarily acetic acid, which is found in vinegar, and ethyl acetate, which smells like straight up nail polish remover. And I’m going to say it even more simply: if you can smell these things and nothing else in your wine, your wine is fucked. If you smell them and insist on drinking it, don’t be surprised if you have instant heartburn.

Not too long ago, VA used to be a quirky natty wine character trait. Nowadays, it feels like a full on character flaw to me. I used to not notice it as much. But like I told my friend today: I’m evolving faster than the wine lol. Maybe I’m getting older. Maybe I’m no longer fun and funky—but I hate severely flawed wine, especially when it’s passed off as “funky” or worse: “natural”.

Don’t get me wrong, when done correctly, a bit of VA can add a wonderful complexity to the wine. But there is a fine line between ‘funk and flaw’.

The topic of flaws is one that separates the natural wine community and the conventional. Producers make decisions in the winery based off of both philosophy and scientific intuition. Some forgo science in the name of philosophy. But what I’ve been noticing recently is that a lot of young wineries (mostly in the US) are making flawed wine, bottling it, and selling it under the guise of funky natural wine. Maybe they think no one will notice. Maybe they’re forced to sell flawed wine because *capitalism*. Maybe consumers are being told that flaws are okay? It’s probably a combination of all of the above to be honest and each of those could be their own newsletters…

The debate is heated: natural/minimal intervention does not correct against winemaking error/flaws. Natural wines signify “fucked up wines" to many conventional wine folks—which is unfortunate because many natural wines are made well and express beautifully. This notion creates an uphill battle for folks like me who constantly have to explain and try to find examples of ‘old-world-style wines’ that are actually natural for the nay-sayers.

Sometimes VA is confused with funky. But VA is actually kinda fucked up. I’ll use this moment to say ‘FUNKY’ DOES NOT MEAN FUCKED UP. Recently, we’ve been confusing the two terms a lot. Personally, I think for every 1 well-made natural wine, there are 2 flawed natural wines being labeled “funky” or “wild” instead of just acknowledging that the wine got messed up in the process and this is probably indicative of a larger issue within the business of consumer wine. (more on that in another newsletter).

But who’s to say what’s ‘fucked up’? Wine is supposed to be subjective. But, I dunno… sometimes its very objective. So yeah, I hate VA and I’m tired of drinking wines that give me heartburn. I want people to understand that this false sense of funk, isn’t actually what natural wine is about. And I want winemakers to NOT sell us a bottle of wine that tastes like vinegar and orange juice. Like my friend Adam said yesterday, “I only drink serious wines now.” PERIOD. I’m on that vibe too.

I know this might spark some heavy debate and I’d love to hear your thoughts so leave a comment and let’s chat!

*I sat with the wine for about 15 mins and it just wasn’t doing it for me.