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Commone Wine Problems and Solutions

Have you ever uncorked a bottle of wine, only to discover it has gone bad? Wine may taste less than perfect for a number of different reasons. While a bad cork may have tainted your wine, storing the bottle in temperatures that are too high may also spoil the wine.

So, how can you tell your wine is spoiled before tasting it? Similarly, is there any way to salvage it? In this article, we'll give you a rundown of how wine gets tainted, how you can tell when it happens and what you can do about it!

Tainted Wine Causes

Wine may become tainted for a few different reasons, including:

Contaminated cork: One of the most common reasons wine becomes tainted is because of the wine's cork. Because cork is an organic material (coming from the wood of the Quercus suber tree), it is as susceptible to rot and infection as any other organic substance.

When cork trees come into contact with certain pollutants and preservatives, they produce byproducts of chlorine, 2,4,6 trichloroanisole (also known as TCA). Cork infected with the TCA fungus is responsible for tainting wine.

Each year, about 2 to 5 percent of wine is spoiled due to cork taint. This translates to roughly $650 million of wine lost annually!
Length of time wine is stored: Another problem with corked wine involves the number of years a bottle has been aged. A cork does not always have an indefinite shelf life. If a cork starts to crumble before your wine is ready to drink, your wine will be ruined.
Oxidation: Once you have opened a bottle of wine, the liquid naturally comes into contact with oxygen. If you don't finish the bottle within a few days and air can still get to the wine (i.e. it hasn't been adequately stopped), then oxidation ensues, tainting the wine and giving it a vinegary flavor.
Storage temperature: Experts recommend that you store your wine between 55°F and 60°F so it ages ideally. Storing wine outside of this range will cause it to slowly spoil.

Tainted Wine: Smell

The most common way people detect tainted wine is by tasting it. Even if you are unfamiliar with what the wine you are drinking is supposed to taste like, you will likely detect spoilage immediately. Tainted wine has an undeniable flavor that is best described as mildew-flavored or reminiscent of dirty socks.

Because this flavor is undesirable at best and grotesque at worst, you likely don't want to test for spoilage by tasting it. Rather than taking a sip, try smelling the wine instead. After pouring it into a glass, take in the aroma of it. If you detect hints of moldiness and heavy muskiness, you probably have a glass of tainted wine.

Keep in mind that, although some people think that a funky smell will dissipate if a wine is allowed to sit in its glass for a bit, this isn't true. In fact, the smell and flavor of a wine increases in intensity as it sits. Consequently, any musty aroma you detect will intensify in smell and flavor.

Now that you know you have tainted wine, what can you do about it?

Wine Problem Solutions

Unfortunately, once you have opened a bottle of tainted wine (which is the only way you can figure out if the bottle has spoiled), the wine is unsalvageable. However, you can take measures to limit the chances of wine spoilage:

Buy wine with screw caps or synthetic corks to avoid tainted cork.
Know the shelf life of the wine you buy.
Once you open a bottle of wine, finish it within a few days, as the wine is likely to not stay good (due to oxidation) for longer than that.
Once you open wine (and don't finish the bottle), use an airtight stopper to seal the bottle and prevent oxidation.
Store your wine in temperatures between 55°F and 60°F.

Wine Corks vs. Screw Tops
Much has changed since the 1600s when people started corking wine. Recently there has been a push for alternatives to natural cork, which will make wine more accessible and less susceptible to spoilage. More than 80 percent of wines bottled in New Zealand are now closed with screw tops. The French even bottle some very fine Bordeaux and Burgundies the same way. Some California growers have hopped on the bandwagon as well. Ninety-nine percent of Bonny Doon wines are now screw tops. The owners of the vineyard actually had a funeral for the cork in 2002.

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