I think Cotturis can have a lot of VA, and certainly Musar historically had a lot of acetic acid. I made my own vinegar for years, and I was put off by many Musars!
Yes. Also a lot of Rhones, particularly southern, grenache-based ones (low acid, high alcohol). A '98 Beaucastel this week had oodles of ethyl acetate/nail polish. Sadly, it also had some TCA. The good news: the brett wasn’t conspicuous.
93 points
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As I recall, it had a giant “man monster” in a sweater vest saying, “Overtones of ethyl acetate!”
I got one left, was looking at it yesterday, decided on another day 
VA mainly smells of ethyl acetate in my experience. That is the reaction product of acetic acid and ethanol. But VA itself is actually mainly actic acid, and you may smell that too.
Ethyl acetate is used in nail polish and nail polish remover, but they may also be based on other solvents. I believe nail polish is usually of ethyl acetate. But the remover will more likey use other solvents, including acetone (and can also have added frgrances). However, acetone smells completely unlike ethyl acetate, and it does not figure in wine chemistry.
Yes, I know a lot of seemingly authoritative sources DO assiciate VA with acetone, but thry are wrong.
I’d never encountered VA in person, only read about it on this board. Then I popped a bottle one day and there it was, nail polish. It really jumped out- was distinct from the wine itself and as Alex pointed out is quite different from other flaws. I don’t have a huge frame of reference though for whether that bottle was badly hit or I’m just senesitive.
Timely - Alex is right that common complaint about Pegau is brett but I drank a 2003 last weekend that had no horse but plenty of nail polish remover.
2015 A. Viloria Syrah - you would have to contact the winemaker directly but this is a perfect example. anthony at aviloriawinery dot com
I added an important clarification to reduction. Not all reductive wines are salvageable.
Not cheap or recent but for me the poster child for VA is 1997 Harlan. I have heard people say they have had clean bottles but every one I have encountered was a massive VA bomb.
In case OP was looking for wines that have “too much VA”, I must comment that I see many people list here different wines as examples with “too much VA” whereas I find them most of them very tolerable. Of course one’s mileage can vary and apparently I can tolerate quite copious amounts of VA - even though I find it easy to detect it in even most minute quantities as well. For example many Musars do have quite a bit of VA, but even though one vintage 1995 red had a noticeable nail polish character in the nose at first, the wine was still very lovely and far from excessively volatile. Still Musar isn’t that reliable a wine to look for VA, because many vintages don’t show any volatile character at all.
Just for curiosity’s sake, some wines that have been excessively volatile even for my taste (they might be quite hard to come by):
Gaia Vinsanto 2005 (Well, this was also very delicious. Smells like raisins with a fresh layer of nail polish. Delicious and complex on its own, but tasted only of VA with cheese - all the other flavors took a step back and the nail polish character just blew out of proportion).
Jean-Marc Brignot Robert est un con (Heavily volatile with tons of nail polish and vinegary VA).
Sebastien Riffault Les Quarterons Pinot Noir 2010 and Raudonas 2011 (Both were pretty lovely at first, but after only a few hours they were way too vinegary).
Also lots of 1960’s Nebbiolos from producers like Nervi, Produttori del Barbaresco, Produttori di Carema, Vallana…
While visiting Santorini, I noticed that many producers had quite elevated levels of VA in their Vinsantos. Not all of the producers, however - some made very clean wines without a trace of VA. The Gaia Vinsanto mentioned above was probably the most extreme example of the style. Usually they tended to show very high levels of ethyl acetate, i.e. smelling and tasting of how nail polish smells like.
If one is interested to taste acetic character that’s an inherent part of the style, Rodenbach Vintage ale (or Rodenbach Grand Cru, if you’re in a pinch) shows quite noticeable acetic character. The beers have a noticeably vinegary nose, sweet taste of balsamico and they have that slightly unpleasant vinegary roughness and heat in your throat when you swallow them - yet they are some of the most delicious beers in existence.
That’s it! Once you experience it, you’ll know it.
Indeed. I’ve have reduced wines which did not ‘blow off’. Sometimes they remain stinking festering garbage pits.
Wow, you folks are great. Thanks for the helpful information so far and for the suggestions. I’m going to do a little shopping.
You’re probably seeing a theme that the wines with obvious VA tend to be relatively high in price. Mass-produced wines tend to be very clean, especially from the New World. It’s the small production stuff that can get funky. Coturri is probably the easiest place to find it, and not just their Zins. I’ve found it in several of their reds. I think it’s common in most vintages of Musar before 2000, definitely 1995 and back, but those get pricey. There are many wines I’ve dumped down the drain because of ethyl acetate, including several from Dettori and Gravner, but again, not cheap.
This is quite informative, and definitely reveals a mistaken impression I have been under for many years. When I have a bottle of wine that has that strong nail polish smell, I just assumed it was over the hill, gone bad, or was always bad. Yes, I know, we all have different preferences and clearly I do not like this flavor, but I always thought it was a flaw and usually just poured the wine down the drain or used it for cooking. I don’t recall that the wines were the most expensive I have ever had. My impression is that I had waited to long too drink them (so they must have had some age on them), or they were bottles I had opened, not finished the bottle (!), and let sit on the counter for a few days – thus I assumed they had just gone bad.
There are certain styles or types of wines that will have certain characteristics that a population of people simply hate, for instance the petrol/diesel flavors of (very) mature riesling or the ‘Sous voile’ styled wines of Jura (or Sherry). Some will look for these characteristics and be disappointed when they cannot find them while others will think “what the hell is this?”. All part of the fun world of wines!
This. I actually think it’s rare to find wines that are obviously flawed where the dominant flaw is acetic acid. Much more likely in my own experience to be ethyl acetate (which is not an acid, but is nevertheless quite volatile and has a distinct aroma).
As Steve says, the best way to learn the smell is to find a bottle of nail polish remover that is mostly ethyl acetate (most are some mix of EA and acetone). Trying to find EA in a random wine will be difficult.
The wines I’ve had that are most noticeably contaminated with ethyl acetate have had failed corks of some kind. One in particular had a crease in the cork from bottling, so a tiny channel that let air in slowly over many years. That bottle wreaked of EA.
The other most common mechanism, in my understanding, is from riper grapes that stay too long on the vine, or sit in bins after picking too long before being processed. Bad things start to happen before proper alcoholic fermentation, and you get an overabundance of EA.
I do believe I’ve smelled acetone in some wines, but it is exceedingly rare.
Appreciate the clarification on acetone vs. acetate, will update my post above.