A nice bottle of white wine or rosé is supposed to have a floral or fruity aroma — or perhaps buttery notes. It is certainly not supposed to smell of boiled cabbage.
Yet that is the risk drinkers are taking when they buy wine in clear bottles, according to two of Britain’s foremost experts.
Susie Barry and Peter Richards, who are both masters of wine, say the taste and smell of sparkling, white and rosé wines can be seriously damaged if they are bottled in translucent glass, due to a phenomenon known as “light strike”.
The married couple, who host the Wine Blast podcast, described the problem as a consumer “scandal” and said that opaque glass, which is used for red wine, should be used for all bottles to best preserve the flavour.
Barry said: “In the most extreme cases, your wine can seriously end up smelling like boiled cabbage, or drains, or wet dog.”
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She added: “The scale of this problem is likely far greater than any other wine taint, and yet we don’t really talk about it. By and large, we accept it. Sometimes, we inadvertently embrace it. Mostly, we just carry on pretending it’s not an issue, while it’s effectively depriving us all of our rightful enjoyment of wine. It is daylight robbery in every sense of the term.”
Light strike can occur if UV rays or “blue” light from the sun or artificial lamps, such as fluorescent tube lighting, react with components in the wine, creating bad-smelling sulphur compounds. Left in direct sunlight, the problem can develop in as little as 30 minutes.
Chris Mercer, of Decanter, the wine magazine, said: “Some wines are generally more susceptible than others. Most at-risk generally [are] white wines, particularly more delicate styles, plus sparkling wines and rosé wines.”
Red wines are inherently more protected because they contain higher levels of polyphenols, the compounds found in grapes, which take longer to be broken down by light. Red wine is also almost always stored in dark-coloured glass, which studies have shown offers better protection against the problem. However, an analysis by The Times of popular wines sold at Tesco shows that nine in ten bottles of rosé are sold in clear glass, along with one in four bottles of white wine.
Barry and Richards, who have published six books about wine, are calling for “wholesale change” to ensure consumers get exactly what they pay for.
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Barry said: “What’s not good at all is putting the wine into clear, colourless glass because that lets most light through, including the most harmful kinds. And what kind of wine tends to get bottled in clear glass? The most vulnerable kinds of wine, of course: rosé, white and some sparkling.”
Experts say wine lovers can minimise the risk by keeping their wine away from direct light and storing bottles in the coolest, darkest part of your house.
However Mark Driver, owner of the Rathfinny Estate in Sussex, advises shoppers to avoid clear glass entirely. He said: “When you’re next reaching for a bottle of rosé, or a more delicate white wine like a Pinot Gris or Blanc, look for one in a darker green or amber-coloured bottle just to be on the safe side.”
He asked: “Isn’t it a little bizarre that beer, which also suffers from this sort of photochemical deterioration, is normally bottled in amber-coloured glass — but wine makers still insist on using clear glass bottles?”
