When you're in a restaurant and the waiter pours you a small amount of wine into a glass for you to taste, you're not only being asked whether you like the wine or not, you're actually being asked to check whether the wine is free of any faults.

A number of things can go wrong with wine because of:

• careless winemaking
• dodgy corks or
• bad storage.

Luckily, these faults are usually fairly easy to spot.

Cork taint
One of the most common faults you'll come across in wines is cork taint. In my experience some corks become contaminated during manufacture, and that taint transfers to the wine in the bottle. When it's bad. cork taint smells unpleasant like damp cardboard and it makes your wine taste flat 'n' 'orrible.

Prematurely aged
If your wine has been stored badly in full sunlight in the window of the bottle shop, for example, or in a warm wine rack behind a busy bar and the cork dries out, air can gel in and react with the wine. This can cause the wine to age prematurely. It can even oxidize, turn brown and start changing to vinegar.

Course of action
If you do think a wine might be faulty - especially if you've tried it before, and the bottle you've just opened doesn't taste the same as the last one - don't be afraid to ask for a replacement from the restaurant or bottle shop. If they're doing their job properly, they should be happy to exchange the tainted wine for a new bottle, without argument.

After all. the customer is always right...

Source: Max Allen Better Homes and Gardens June 2004