To ask why so much wine is off now when you open it?

[JontyDoggle37]

I’m really fed up. Keeping buying decent is bottles of white (£8-£10 bracket) and finding they’re full of small bubbles, have basically started to ferment, and taste really sharp and acids, plus of you actually drink it give you a much worse hangover. It’s inly been the last 2-3 years I’ve noticed this happening more and this year especially ( Tesco and Sainsbury purchases, not own brand but recognised makes). It’s really pissing me off I want to enjoy my wine!!! It can’t be the screw tops because they’ve been around for ages and this hardly ever used to happen...

don't buy a £10 bottle, they're no better than a £5 bottle

This is not true.

If you buy wine for £5, most of the cost is on tax, transport etc. The value of the actual wine is probably less than 50p.

If you buy a £10 bottle however, the fixed costs are the same as the £5 bottle but you’re getting around 6 times the quality of wine for only twice the price.

But if you're happy with a £5 bottle then you are wasting £5. Wine doesn't really have 'value' does it? You just drink it.

I have literally never had this issue! Seems odd to happen to you so often?
We buy and drink a lot of wine around that price point, at least 6 bottles a week (pre pg). Where are you shopping? Ocado and Tesco mainly here.

Cheap wine is buckfast!

A lot of white wine (especially the cheap stuff) tastes acidic and sharp to me - I'm just very fussy about what I buy now.

As a pp said, a small amount of bubbles, or petillance on the tongue, is perfectly normal.

It sounds like maybe your tastes have changed and you need to try some different wines to find something you like. A good wine shop should be able to guide you in the right direction.

If you buy a £10 bottle however, the fixed costs are the same as the £5 bottle but you’re getting around 6 times the quality of wine for only twice the price

While it's true that around six times more money goes on the wine with a £10 wine compared to a £5 wine, it doesn't follow that the wine is six times the quality. Maybe the winemaker just makes more profit? Maybe there's a lot more economy of scale with a £5 wine (likely).

A small scale winemaker who needs to make £10 wine to make a living doesn't necessarily make 'better' wine than a mass producer who sells millions of bottles to supermarkets that sell for £5, they might, but it's not a given. Even experts often can't reliably tell the difference between wine at different price points.

And, like tea says, if you like the £5 wine, then there's no extra value to you in spending twice as much. I mainly drink fizz and am not fussy. I've drunk everything from £5 cavas to English sparkling wine at £20+ per bottle and I honestly have no preference and probably couldn't tell the difference between them. So I usually buy the £5 cavas unless I see an expensive bottle that I particularly want to try, on offer at a good price.

@GermfreeAdolescence Buckfast is only cheap in Scotland, it's pricey if you buy it from the Abbey. Those are the only places I've ever seen it sold.

Blimey £11.37 a bottle on Amazon!

www.amazon.co.uk/Buckfast-Tonic-Wine-75cl/dp/B004CS6K50/ref=nodl_

Buckfast isn't as cheap since minimum alcohol pricing came in in Scotland

Buckfast is about £8. I pay less for a bottle of pinot grigio!

A lot of white wine (especially the cheap stuff) tastes acidic and sharp to me

I don't think that's purely about price. Chardonnay I can't bear. Pinot grigio although uninteresting is cheap and you can't go wrong with it in my experience. Muscadet is my favourite white wine.

Red I am less fussy tbh and sometimes think you have to drink cheap to appreciate the good stuff.

OP - I’ve had this a few times as well. On a couple of more expensive bottles as well. So I know exactly what you mean. I think it’s always been on screw tops, though, so I’ve wondered if there’s been some slight fault in the sealing process which meant some air got in?

I was told it is when it has been stored in the sun for a period of time before going on the shelf. So if the back room has windows and the box was torn etc, or it was put on a rolling trolley but there was a delay getting it out.

I'm the same OP. We don't drink much but went to have a bottle of stuff we'd bought at Christmas and had to dump 2 bottles as it was acidy. It's wine we've bought before and in similar price bracket to you.

Ours was red though.

Screw top wine. Follow storage instructions. Should be fine.

Own-brand wine is supposed to be excellent value. I know it seems counterintuitive, but Waitrose is generally pretty good for the £4.99 wines. Then again, I’m not that fussy...

Only had it happen once and the lid hadn’t sealed properly in the factory. You choice actually just remove the whole sleeve and lid and put back on making it look never opened. That was a cheapy £3.99 b&m job too.

I’ve been buying Aldi Limestone Coast Chardonnay every week since about 2012 (£5.79 a bottle - free delivery online) and I’ve never had a bad bottle.

OP chirped in waaaay too early with a dig at MN.

Bollocks.

Cheap wine 1 - 2 euros
Normal 3 - 8
Everything else is special occasion! Never had a problem with wine being off.

Do you mean it's turning to vinegar? Because that's the next stage. Although I'm sure i saw on a cookery show that you need an alien-like vinegar 'mother' to make vinegar? Are there pretty pink blobs in yer vino?