Chances are that you have sipped a wine and thought that it did not taste quite right, but you were not able to pinpoint why. That's because the wine may have suffered from a fault affecting the aromatics or taste.
The modernisation of winemaking, improvements in hygiene, and tighter quality control measures mean that faulty wines occur less often. But a small percentage of wines may still have faults. This is not generally a food safety issue, but the wines don't make for a pleasant drinking experience. Some of the problems include:
Oxidation
Oxidation is probably one of the most common problems. It affects the colour of the wine. Young whites may have turned from a bright gold to dark lemon with tints of brown. A ruby, purple red wine will appear to have an orangey/ brown tint. The fresh fruit aromatics may be dull and the wine may be lacking in freshness on the palate.
You can try an oxidised wine by re-tasting a wine from a open bottle after a few days. The aromas will have lost the fresh and vibrant fruit character and it may taste stale.
Oxidation can happen at any stage of the process. It may be traced back to the winemaking stage when insufficient antioxidants were added. It may be due to improper temperature conditions during transport or storage. High temperatures will increase the rate of oxidation. Or it may happen during bottling, when too much oxygen comes into contact with the wine.
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