Whether you’re popping a bottle to celebrate a big event or just celebrating Wine Wednesday at home, there’s nothing like that first sip of a well-aged pinot noir or a crisp sauvignon blanc in its prime. Sometimes though wine doesn’t taste quite right, and this can be due to a variety of factors it encounters on its journey from the vine to your glass. But does wine go bad? Is a wine that tastes “off” truly bad? Before you start pouring a bottle down the drain, let’s explore what can cause a wine to lose its luster, how to prevent this, and what steps you can take if you encounter a less-than-perfect pour.
Does Wine Go Bad?
The short answer is yes—wine can spoil to the point where you may prefer not to drink it. However, it’s not always a clear-cut case of good or bad. There’s a broad spectrum in between, where a wine might be slightly past its prime and tasting less vibrant than you’d hope, but be perfectly safe to enjoy.
Spoiled Wine
Patricia Toth, head winemaker at Planeta Winery in Sicily advises that true spoilage in wine is rare. It mostly depends on the conditions of stocking and logistics: if all is kept under control and in the ideal range of temperature, light, and humidity, the wine won’t spoil by itself, she says. If stored improperly, even the most soundly made wines may go a little off, but is a wine ever truly undrinkable? Toth says: “Undrinkability might be detected from too strong and pungent smells, through color loss or complete turbidity, but I think and hope that real undrinkability is rare in the sector.”
Wine at Its Prime
Think of wine as a living entity, much like a piece of fruit. Just as a ripe peach has its peak moment of sweetness and juiciness before it softens and over-ripens, wine has its ideal window for drinking. This is true for all types of wine, from full-bodied red wines to delicate rosé wines and even sparkling wines.
Wine is constantly evolving, even once it’s in the bottle. The mix of chemical reactions, acids, sugars, and tannins creates a complex and ever-changing profile. While a bottle might age gracefully for years—sometimes decades—there comes a point when it starts to lose its vibrancy and freshness.
Bad Wine Is Not an Issue for Most of Us
For the average wine lover who’s not storing bottles in a meticulously controlled wine cellar for long-term aging, this isn’t usually something to worry about. If you’re like most of us and simply keep a few bottles on a wine rack in the kitchen or in a wine fridge and drink your wines soon after purchasing them, you’re unlikely to encounter a bad bottle unless it’s been left open for too long–or, if there are actually bacterial or chemical faults in the wine.
Faults vs. Flaws
In the sommelier community, we divide less-than-perfect wines into two categories: faults and flaws. A wine fault is a severe defect that makes the wine undrinkable, while a wine flaw is a less serious issue that may slightly diminish the wine’s quality, but it can still be consumed—its shine may just be dimmed a bit.
Wine Faults
Faults are typically caused by serious problems in the winemaking process, storage, or handling. Common examples of wine faults include: cork taint (TCA contamination), bacterial infections like tetrahydropyridine (THP for short), and volatile acidity
These faults result in off-putting aromas and flavors, such as wet cardboard, vinegar, or rotten eggs, making the wine essentially undrinkable.
Wine Flaws
A wine flaw, on the other hand, is a minor imperfection that doesn’t necessarily ruin the wine but can detract from its overall quality. Flaws might make a wine less enjoyable but still drinkable.
Common examples of wine flaws include reduction (a temporary sulfur odor), mild oxidation, or a touch of brettanomyces (“brett,” if you want to sound like a somm!) that imparts a barnyard aroma
While flaws can be noticeable, they often fall within a range of what some wine lovers might tolerate or even find intriguing, depending on personal preferences.
Signs of Bad Wine
Spotting a flawed or faulty bottle of wine is easier than you might think. Let’s break it down into three main areas: visual cues, smell, and taste.
Visual Indicators
The first thing you might notice in a wine past its prime is a change in color. With age, red wines may start taking on a brick-red or brownish hue, while white wines may appear more golden or slightly amber. This doesn’t always indicate a bad wine. Still, if your favorite pinot grigio, that’s usually a pale yellow shade, demonstrates a remarkably darker color, it could be a sign that it’s been sitting on the shelf too long.
Sediment or a cloudy appearance can also indicate the wine is past its prime. These changes might not always indicate that the wine is undrinkable, but they can suggest that it’s no longer at its best. If the visuals seem odd and the aroma also seems off, there’s a good chance you’re looking at a bottle in decline.
Olfactory Cues
Here’s where your nose becomes your best ally. Flawed or faulty wine often gives off an unpleasant odor, and the specific scent can tell you a lot about what went wrong.
If it smells like the following, you may want to steer clear:
- Barnyard, sweaty horse, Band-Aids, or manure: This is the infamous brettanomyces, or “brett,” as sommeliers call it. In small doses, brett can add a rustic charm to certain wines, but left unchecked, it can make a wine undrinkable. Some people do enjoy brett in wine, so to each their own.
- Sauerkraut: Lactic acid bacteria gone rogue can give wine this nose-wrinkling scent. Not exactly what you want in your glass.
- Vinegar or nail polish remover: If your wine smells like vinegar, it’s a sign of volatile acidity, which often results from too much oxygen interacting with acetic acid bacteria.
- Damp basement, moldy cardboard, or wet dog odors: These smells indicate TCA contamination or “cork taint.” Even in minuscule amounts, TCA can ruin the aroma and flavor of wine.
- Rotten eggs, onions, or cabbage: This could signify volatile sulfur compounds from a lack of oxygen during the winemaking process. Fortunately, this flaw might disappear after the wine is opened and decanted—give it a little time, and these fumes might blow off.
- Nuttiness: This is a clear sign of oxidized wine, usually from a faulty closure that allowed too much oxygen to seep in.
Taste and Texture Changes
Finally, if the wine passes the eye and nose test, take a small sip. Wine past its optimal drinking window will often have an off-putting taste—sharp, sour, or flat. If it feels strangely thick or syrupy in your mouth, that can indicate the wine might have been heat-damaged either in transit or in storage. If you experience fizz or bubbles in a still wine, your wine might have started re-fermenting, a sign that it wasn’t adequately sterilized before bottling. This is especially true in red wines that are not meant to be sparkling.
How to Prevent Wine From Going Bad
Now that we know what causes wine to go bad, let’s talk about how to prevent it.
Proper Storage
Store your wine in a cool, dark space with a consistent temperature—ideally between 45 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If possible, keep your unopened bottles of wine on their sides to ensure the cork stays moist, which helps maintain a tight seal. This is especially important for older wines and those with natural corks (and not important at all for screw-top wines).
Sealing Opened Bottles
Once you’ve opened a bottle, reseal it as tightly as possible to minimize oxygen exposure. Investing in a good wine stopper or vacuum pump can help extend the life of your wine. If you’re not planning to finish the bottle within a couple of days, consider transferring the leftover wine to a smaller container or wrapping the bottle’s neck with plastic wrap to reduce the air in contact with the liquid.
Wine Preservation Tools
Several tools are available which are designed to help keep wine fresh. Vacuum pumps remove excess air from the bottle, while inert gas systems like the Coravin replace the oxygen with a non-reactive gas, slowing the oxidation process. These tools can be particularly useful for those who enjoy savoring a bottle over several weeks.
Does Bad Wine Make You Sick?
One of the most common concerns about flawed wine is whether it can make you ill. The good news is that while bad wine might taste unpleasant, it’s unlikely to cause serious harm. Wine that has turned will generally taste sour, flat, or off. Drinking spoiled wine isn’t going to give you food poisoning, but it certainly won’t be an enjoyable experience. “Wine usually is not hiding major health-threatening microbiological risks and is not in contact with carriers who could,” says Toth. She explains that winemakers take traceability and food safety analysis very seriously. They are done on grapes, in the vineyard and at their arrival to the cellar, and later on the ready, fermented wine, and on the bottled version, too.
If you ever find yourself wondering whether that old bottle of wine in the back of your fridge is still good, take a moment to inspect, sniff, and taste. If it passes these tests, then go ahead and pour yourself a glass. And if not? Well, at least you know it’s time to treat yourself to a new bottle.
