Why does Madeira taste like that?

Characteristically low tannin and medium-plus acidity. Commonly associated with dried fruit, caramel, smoke.

Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.

Characteristically very low tannin and high acidity. Commonly associated with lemon, almond, smoke, dried herbs.

Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.

Characteristically very low tannin and high acidity. Commonly associated with dried apricot, lime, smoke, walnut.

Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.

Warmer growing seasons are associated with faster sugar accumulation and lower retained acidity, so fruit reaches a given potential alcohol earlier in the season.

Varies: Above the vine’s photosynthetic optimum the relationship reverses: extreme heat stalls ripening, inhibits anthocyanin synthesis and can raise sugar only through berry dehydration.

Not claiming: That warm regions necessarily make high-alcohol wine. Potential alcohol at any moment is a choice point; the producer decides when to pick.

Proximity to a large body of water moderates temperature extremes, which is associated with a longer, more even ripening period and a lower risk of both spring frost and extreme summer heat.

Varies: Maritime influence also raises humidity, which raises fungal disease pressure. It is not uniformly an advantage.

Not claiming: That a maritime climate is cool. Maritime describes variability, not temperature.

Adding spirit raises alcohol above the level yeast can tolerate. Added during fermentation it halts the process, leaving unfermented grape sugar in the wine — which is why Port is sweet. Added after fermentation has finished, the wine remains as dry as it already was, which is the Sherry case.

Varies: Timing is the whole variable. The same operation on the same wine a week apart produces a sweet fortified wine or a dry one.

Not claiming: That fortification produces sweetness. It produces sweetness only when it interrupts a fermentation that still has sugar to work on.

Deliberately heating Madeira, which is why it is effectively indestructible.

Not claiming: That every producer of this style uses this method, or that using it is required.

Prolonged contact with air produces acetaldehyde and, over longer periods, sotolon, associated with walnut, curry leaf and dried-fruit characters.

Not claiming: That these characters indicate a fault. In oxidatively aged styles they are the intended result.

Among the longest-lived wines in existence. Nineteenth-century bottles are still drinkable, and vintage Madeira is routinely sold at a hundred years old.

Not claiming: That a wine of this style will develop these characters. Ageing potential varies by producer, vintage and storage, and most wine is better young.