Clear bottles can make your glass of wine smell ‘of boiled cabbage or drain’ – with TV pundits warning people are falling victim to ‘daylight robbery’.
Susie Barrie and Peter Richards, both Masters of Wine and appearing on BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen, said the taste and aroma of sparkling, white and rosé wines can be seriously damaged if stored in clear glasses.
The couple said opaque bottles, typically reserved for red wine, would better preserve the flavor of the drink.
The use of translucent glass in the packaging process can lead to ‘light impact’, where exposure to light destroys the aroma compounds and risks double fermentation, causing drinks to pick up the unpleasant odor.
Researchers found that up to 70 percent of the aroma compounds were lost by simply storing wine in clear bottles.
Clear bottles can make your glass of wine smell like ‘boiled cabbage or drain’ – with TV pundits warning of ‘daylight robbery’ (Stock Photo)
Susie Barrie and Peter Richards, both Masters of Wine and appearing on BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen, said opaque glass, usually reserved for red wine, would better preserve the flavor of white wine (Stock Photo)
Now the TV stars, who have published six books, are calling for ‘wholesale change’ to tackle this ‘scandal’.
Speaking on their Wine Blast podcast, Ms Barrie said this problem is currently affecting the biggest wine drinkers.
She said: ‘In the most extreme cases, your wine can start to smell seriously like boiled cabbage, or drain, or wet dog.
‘The scale of this problem is probably much bigger than any other wine odor, and yet we don’t really talk about it.
“We generally accept it, sometimes we unintentionally embrace it, and most of the time we continue to pretend it’s not a problem when in fact it deprives us of all our rightful enjoyment of wine.
“It’s daylight robbery in every sense of the word.”
Mr Richards, who has been dubbed the ‘David Attenborough of wine’, explained that they were the ‘most fragile’ wines which were traditionally stored in translucent bottles.
Red wines are naturally better protected because they contain higher levels of polyphenols – compounds found in grapes – which take longer for light to break down.
He said: ‘What is not good at all is putting the wine in a clear, colorless glass, because that lets in most light, including the most harmful kinds.
‘And what kind of wine is usually bottled in clear glass? The most vulnerable wine types of course: rosé, white and a little sparkling.’
Red wines are naturally better protected because they contain higher levels of polyphenols – compounds found in grapes – which take longer for light to break down (Stock Photo)
The pair, who appear regularly on the BBC, ITV and Sky, are two of just 507 people to have passed the rigorous exam to become Masters of Wine since 1953.
And they have an “easy solution” to prevent wines from being damaged by light: use dark glass bottles.
Ms Barrie said: ‘When we talk about bottles, which is the reality for the vast majority of wine, it means that the darkest possible glass, you know, black or dark amber is best because it blocks out most of the light, especially the most damaging wavelengths we have already mentioned.’