Words change depending on their use. We know the beauty of language is that each word corresponds to a precise meaning or we would understand absolutely nothing when we talk to each other! It is also true that by the same token, meanings and concepts that are completely different can be associated. Sometimes even opposites.
This is the case with the word "acidity". Generally, this word indicates something or someone a bit unpleasant. An "acidic" person can sometimes mean an unfriendly person who isn’t exactly fun to be around.
But this word in the world of wine means something else altogether. The neophytes of the wine world may think that a wine characterized by "great acidity" is a bad wine but nothing could be more wrong. Pour that wine into your glass and sip away.
The acidity of a wine indicates a degree of freshness, that is how much a wine is able to activate the salivation process. A wine with good acidity is a wine that literally makes us salivate, a mouth-watering wine from first to last sip. This acidity cleans our mouth of fatty foods which is why a Brut sparkling wine will be perfect with cured meats or semi-mature cheeses. The effervescence of the bubbles cleanses the mouth of any fat.
This same term is very different especially when referring to another Italian excellence - extra virgin olive oil. In this case, the term indicates the quality of the raw material from which the oil is obtained. An acidic olive is an olive that has gone bad, which has far passed its maturation process. Producing such a delicate product as extra virgin olive oil with now degraded olives means irreparably compromising the final result. It would be like producing a wine that is already known to be oxidized. Nothing could be more wrong.
In order to be sure that an olive oil does not contain too much acidity, it is necessary to make sure that the olive is healthy, that it has not exceeded its maturation period, that it does not suffer damage during transport to the milling, and that they are stored for the shortest possible time in the warehouse before moving to the mill.
