How does white wine spoil?

If you have actually ever discovered a bottle of wine that's been being in your cooking area for a couple of months (or years) and taken a sniff, you understand that wine can go bad. While red wine doesn't technically ruin the way other food does, exposure to oxygen, sunlight, and heat can trigger it to deteriorate, giving it an undesirable taste.

How does red wine spoil? Over time, the compounds in wine that provide it its signature taste and fragrance break down, and the white wine begins to taste vinegar-y and flat. This process is speeded up by heat and light, so it is essential to save white wine in a cool, dark location.

Remarkably, wine in fact gets much better with age, as much as a point. As wine ages, the tannins (substances that offer it a bitter flavor) begin to break down and the red wine becomes smoother and more complicated. This is why many red white wines enhance with age and why most white wines are best taken in young.

However, as soon as a white wine starts to spoil, there's no going back.  useful reference As soon as those tannins have broken down, they're chosen great. So if you discover an old bottle of red wine that's starting to turn, it's finest to simply put it down the drain.