What is wrong with a wine that smells and tastes of vinegar?
The smell and/or taste of vinegar indicates that a wine has either been badly made or the bottle has been open for too long and has been attacked by a bacteria, called “Acetobacter”. Acetobacter reacts with oxygen and this reaction changes the taste of a wine to a vinegary flavour. In fact, this is how vinegar is made. This fault is also described as “volatile”.