Wine Faults

Something ain't quite right with your wine, but you aren't sure what it might be or if it's just you. Following are the most common problems you can find with wine. Some of them happened at the winery, the others in storage, in transit, or in your hands.

Oh, oh

More Common

Cooked
This is from a long exposure to heat. Perhaps the bottle was left in direct sunlight or in your car's trunk. White wines are brown and nutty tastings. Reds are stewed and raisiny tasting. So, it tastes cooked. If you notice wine leaked out of the cork it has overheated. That doesn't necessarily mean it's cooked, but open and drink it now. There is no reason to let it set.

Corked
Unfortunately, corked wine was prevalent about 20 years ago. If you're aging a wine from that time period know that you run the risk of a corked wine. The wine industry figured out the problem and largely fixed it, but you still will occasionally run across a corked wine. It's a chemical taint that leaves a wine with a musty, damp, wet newspaper smell. In smaller amounts, it will take away the fruit making the wine seem flat. If you open a corked wine, save the cork and contact the retailer or winery where you purchased it. If they are nearby, you can take the res of the wine with the cork in the bottle back to them for a replacement.

Over the hill (too old)
The wine has been aged well past its optimal drinking window. This is a tough one to manage because what is the optimal drinking window for a wine? That time period is all over the place as there are many factors including what wine varietal, how it was made, and how it was stored. Everything has faded in an over the hill wine: the color, the freshness, the fruit, and the structure (primarily acids and tannins). It could be oxidized or vinegary. It will at least be uninteresting.

Oxidized 
Wine's exposure to oxygen is part of the process that develops the wine. Too much oxygen gives a dull, flat, lifeless wine. White wines turn orange, red wines turn brown. This can happen at the winery or in a bottle that overheats then cools, drawing air in. Likely it happens because a bottle was left open too long. 

Travel Shock / Bottle Shock
When wine is bottled, when it is shipped to your home, or taken on a trip by you, it gets jostled and has temperature changes. The characteristics of travel shocked wine are often described as muted and disjointed. This is temporary and is fixed by putting the wine in a cool place and leaving it alone for a week or two.  

Less Common 

Brett
Brettanomyces is a wild yeast that can spoil a wine. It'll smell like a barnyard or a horse. In low quantities, it adds a funkiness that some people like. I'm not one of them. If someone says they use low intervention wine making, this is more likely to happen.

Reduction
This is too little oxygen in the winemaking process, creating sulfur compounds giving off rotten egg or a match head smell. You can try decanting the wine to add oxygen. If that doesn't work, contact the winery.

Volatile Acidity
VA is a spoilage that occurs in wine making or even in the vineyard, and gives off a vinegar or nail polish remover smell. This is really unpleasant, and the wine should be returned.

No sweaty horse in my wine, thanks