Buyer beware

A good wine can easily be spoiled by poor storage, yet many wine shops still pay far too little attention to looking after their stock. When you are shopping for wine, note the conditions inside the shop to ensure that the wine you are buying is in its optimum state.

Ideally, the shop should be climate controlled, but in reality only specialist shops tend to go to this expense. At the very least, the wine should be kept away from sources of heat and light (boilers, windows and so on).

None of the following indicators is a sure sign that the wine in the bottle is spoiled, but all of them should ring warning bells: