How To Tell If Your Wine Is Bad - KnowWines

Oxidation (addition of oxygen during winemaking) and the flavors and aromas of a Brettanomyces infected wine are two types of ‘flaws’ that some would argue are pleasant and desirable depending upon the wine and wine style. This debate is becoming more prevalent with the increase in the number of natural wines on the market. But, this is a topic for another article!

Where do wine faults come from?

Wine faults can be introduced at any time during the winemaking process and can be influenced by vineyard practices as well. Their presence can be influenced by vineyard management (rootstock, trellising systems, watering timing, grape cultivation, harvesting, sorting, pressing, fermentation, winemaking, aging, bottling, storage, and transportation).

At just about any time in the wine making process, something might go wrong. Depending upon the phase in the process, the vineyard manager, winemaker, or transporter may be able to remedy an issue or not. At times, the fault may be so severe that the production of certain lots of wine is a total loss for the year.

In summary, many of the wine faults are introduced during fermentation and aging, resulting in undesirable molecule formation that may or may not be perceptible to human noses and taste buds.

What if my non-sparkling wine is fizzy?

So you’ve opened a bottle of wine and heard a pop, even though you didn’t purchase a sparkling wine. Or, you feel the texture of tiny bubbles on your tongue and did not expect them.

In aromatic white wines like Riesling that are bottled young, you may run across such a phenomenon. This occurrence is typically not considered a fault. The bubbles are remaining from the primary fermentation or a little bit of CO2 was added at the time of bottling for a little lift of freshness.

In less aromatic white wines (like Chardonnay aged in oak) and in most red wines, the presence of fizz is most likely a flaw. The effervescence, in this case, is likely from a secondary fermentation in the bottle after bottling. If the wine is a little cloudy, that often confirms that a secondary fermentation took place as the cloudiness is yeast or bacteria bodies in suspension.

Why does my wine have no flavor?

Sometimes the wine's fault is that it has little to no flavor. This fault is a little more tricky to figure out, especially if you are at a restaurant and the server or sommelier is hovering over you asking if the wine is “okay.”

In this case, the first thing to check is the temperature. If there is no aroma and flavor and the wine feels almost ice-cold, then you’ll have to wait until the wine warms up a little bit to see if aromas emerge. For the same reason that most American lager is served at ice-cold temperatures, some low-end wines are also served at a very low temperature. This is because these wines simply don’t have a lot of flavor and many quality issues can be masked by serving wines at a too-low temperature.

If the temperature of the wine is good, then it could be that the wine needs some air or decanting in order to open up its aromas. If you are unsure if the wine needs decanting, ask your server or sommelier if this is the type of wine that needs air, especially if you’ve never had that particular type of wine before. If you are at home, you might want to investigate your wine on an App like Vivino or CellarTracker to see if others have had the same experience.

Why does my wine taste like vinegar or fingernail polish remover?

If you detect a sharp, acidic smell, that is the aroma of acetic acid (vinegar smell) and ethyl acetate (nail polish remover). These compounds are created naturally by yeast and bacteria native to the vineyard.

Winemakers try to control this by controlling the amount of oxygen exposure during winemaking. While this can be fairly easy to control in commercial winemaking, once one starts to introduce aging in oak barrels, this type of acidity can become more prevalent. The problem becomes a noticeable flaw when there is too much acetic acid produced and the acid reaches a flavor threshold or detectable level.

Some wine drinkers are more sensitive to - and prefer to varying degrees - the amount of these acids present in wine. There’s nothing we can do to fix this fault in wine once it is present.

What do I do with bad wine?

If you come across a bad wine, the best remedy is to speak to the merchant at the shop where you purchased the wine. Most people who sell and serve wine know that an occasional bad wine is just a part of doing business.

If you purchased the wine from a winery, send them an email or give them a call, explaining what you experienced. In your message, describe the fault to the best of your ability. Most will take measures to refund your money or send you a new wine of the same or similar vintage.

If your wine is bad (or you have some old wine that you suspect is bad) you might want to consider ordering a vinegar mother and making your own vinegar.