Your Wine Could Be Sick

Home Wine Making Blog: When you think about a wine you normally don't think of it in terms of being in a good mood, humorous or even under-the-weather, but there is a term used by the wine industry that might make you think that such terms are appropriate.

Bottle sickness is often used to describe a wine that has taken a plunge in quality, usually right after bottling. It is referred to as a 'sickness' because the effects are temporary and with a little rest the wine will come back to its good-ole self once again.

Bottle sickness (also referred to as 'bottle shock' or 'travel shock') occurs when the wine absorbs too much oxygen in too little time, something that is likely to happen during bottling. Wines can handle the slow, gradual infusion of air that is naturally allowed by wine corks. In fact, most red wines will benefit from such a scenario, but when the oxygen comes too fast a build-up of an element called acetaldehyde starts to become prevalent in the wine.

Acetaldehyde is naturally found in any wine, at least in small, unnoticeable amounts, but in higher amounts its presence can be detected as an odor of rotting apples or nuts. This is what's noticed in wines that are suffering from bottle shock. The overall impression the wine gives can be described as flat or flabby, or just plain lacking in fruitiness.

Over the course of time the acetaldehyde will slowly convert to alcohol, bringing the wine back into line with something enjoyable to drink. How long this takes depends on the severity of the sickness. It could be as little as a few days or as long as a few weeks.

This is just one more reason of many as to why aging is so important. You could pick up a newly bottled wine from your cellar one week and wonder why it's so lifeless then the next week be overwhelmed by its superb flavor.