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Wine fault

Microbial spoilage in an opened or damaged bottle

Visible growth, a film on the surface or a putrid smell — the one group of conditions where the honest answer is to pour it away.

A genuine fault

What you notice

Smell

  • A smell of rot or decay rather than of wine — not vinegar, not farmyard, genuinely off

Appearance

  • A pale, wrinkled film or skin across the surface of the wine
  • Fuzzy growth, on the wine or around the neck of the bottle
  • A cork pushed proud of the rim, or a bulging or leaking bottle

What it is

Almost everything WineHQ describes as a fault is a matter of taste rather than safety: cork taint, oxidation, reduction and the rest are unpleasant and harmless. This record exists so that the small number of genuinely different cases are not buried among them.

Wine is a hostile environment — alcohol, acidity and usually sulfites — which is why it resists spoilage far better than most drinks and why serious problems are rare. But it is not sterile. An opened bottle left for weeks can grow a surface film, and a bottle with a failed seal stored somewhere warm can grow visible mould around the neck.

The distinction that matters is between a wine that tastes wrong and a wine that has been colonised. A wine turning towards vinegar smells sharp and acetic and is a fault. A wine that smells of rot, has fuzzy growth on it, or is building pressure it should not have is something else.

What causes it

  • A bottle left open long enough for film-forming yeasts to colonise the surface. This takes weeks rather than days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
  • A failed seal letting in air and organisms over a long period.
  • Storage warm enough for spoilage organisms to work quickly.
  • Contamination around the neck or closure, which is where visible mould most often appears.

Can I fix it?

No — nothing will fix it

No, and this is the one case on this page where the answer to "can I drink it anyway?" is also no.

What you can do

  • Pour it away. There is no remedy, and nothing is recovered by filtering or decanting it.
  • Wash the glass and the bottle neck properly rather than reusing either as-is.
  • For an unopened bottle in this state, keep it and photograph it: this is exactly the case a retailer should refund.
  • To avoid it: reseal opened bottles and refrigerate them, and treat the timescales on the opened-wine guidance as generous rather than cautious.

What does not work

Published because a reader holding a spoiled bottle has usually already been told to try one of these. Correcting the specific wrong advice is more use than stating the right answer beside it in silence.

Filtering or straining it
Removes the visible haze and leaves the bacteria, their metabolites and whatever produced the smell entirely in place. Clarity is not cleanliness, and a filtered spoiled wine is a spoiled wine you can see through.
Cooking with it
Reasonable for a merely oxidised bottle and not for this one. Heat does not make spoiled wine into a good ingredient.

Is it safe to drink?

Do not drink this

There is a genuine reason to pour this away rather than drink it.

No — and this is the one page on WineHQ where that is the answer. Almost every wine fault is a question of enjoyment rather than health, but a bottle carrying visible growth, a surface film, or a smell of decay has been colonised by organisms whose by-products are not something to swallow. It is very unlikely to do serious harm, and there is no reason whatsoever to find out.

When not to drink it

Any of these on their own is enough: fuzzy or coloured growth on the wine or around the neck; a pale wrinkled film across the surface of an opened bottle; a smell of rot or sewage rather than of wine, vinegar or farmyard; a still wine that is fizzing, or a bottle that is bulging, weeping or pushing its cork. If you are unsure whether what you can smell is spoilage or one of the ordinary faults, the cost of pouring away a bottle is lower than the alternative.

Can I take it back?

Yes, if it was unopened when you found it and was bought recently. A bottle that arrived already spoiled is a faulty product, and a reputable retailer will replace it — take a photograph before you dispose of it. A bottle you opened three weeks ago and left on the counter is not the retailer’s responsibility.

Sources

Sources consulted

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