Follow your nose see what it tells you about wine. The other major cause of taint. How vintners are dealing with taint. Demystifying Wine Art of Drinking or click here for more sites. Since wines have a life span, depending on the type, the sugar and, in some cases, the alcohol content, oxidation can, in fact, result in a wine becoming just too old to drink.
Purists object to using anything but the natural products of traditional winemaking.
However, this addition does not detract from the flavour, scent, or colour of the wine and can save the wine drinker from a wine that has aged too far and the wine producer from lost revenue. In fact, since oxidants left on the surface of a cork can cause oxidation, the use of ascorbic acid can preserve wine that traditional methods would bring to an untimely end. Another possible cause for a bad smelling, bad tasting wine is the presence of chemicals such as pesticides. A graphic example of this situation occurred in the 1980s and 1990s in a number of prominent French winemaking regions. As the popularity of wine increased worldwide, many vintners constructed new buildings and cellars to house their products.