Accidental maderisation

Accidental maderisation refers to the spoilage of a table wine through combined exposure to heat and oxygen, wrongly evoking the deliberate oxidative style of Madeira. It browns the colour and develops notes of caramel, cooked fruit, walnut and unwanted rancio. Unlike wines intentionally heated in estufagem, this fault arises from excessively warm storage or poorly controlled transport, erasing the freshness and primary fruit expected of an unfortified still wine.