Clear bottles can make wine smell 'like boiled cabbage' due to little-known phenomenon, experts warn

Clear bottles can leave your glass of wine smelling 'like boiled cabbage or drains' - with TV experts warning that people are falling victim to 'daylight robbery'.

Susie Barrie and Peter Richards, both Masters of Wine who have appeared on BBC One's Saturday Kitchen, said the taste and aroma of sparkling, white and rosé wines can be seriously damaged if stored in translucent glass.

The married couple said that opaque bottles, generally reserved for red wine, would better preserve the drink's flavour.

The use of translucent glass in the packaging process can lead to 'light strike', where exposure to light destroys aroma compounds and risks double-fermentation, causing drinks to pick up the unpleasant smell.

Researchers found that up to 70 per cent of aroma compounds were being lost simply by storing wine in clear bottles.

Clear bottles can leave your glass of wine smelling 'like boiled cabbage or drains' - with TV experts warning of 'daylight robbery' (Stock Photo)

Susie Barrie and Peter Richards, both Masters of Wine who have appeared on BBC One's Saturday Kitchen, said that opaque glass, generally reserved for red wine, would better preserve white wine's flavour (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 the issue was the biggest facing wine drinkers at the moment.

She said: 'In the most extreme cases, your wine can seriously end up smelling like boiled cabbage, or drains, or wet dog.

'Now the scale of this problem is likely far greater than any other, any other wine taint, and yet we don't really talk about it.

'By and large we accept it, sometimes we inadvertently embrace it, and mostly we just carry on pretending it's not an issue, while it's effectively depriving us all of our rightful enjoyment of wine. 

'It is daylight robbery in every sense of the term.'

Mr Richards, who has been dubbed the 'David Attenborough of wine', explained that it was the 'most vulnerable' wines that were traditionally stored in translucent bottles.

Red wines are inherently more protected because they contain higher levels of polyphenols - compounds found in grapes - which take longer for light to break down.

He said: 'What's not good at all is putting the wine into clear, colourless glass because that lets most light through, including the most harmful kinds.

'And what kind of wine tends to get bottled in clear glass? The most vulnerable kinds of wine, of course, rosé, white, and some sparkling.'

Red wines are inherently more 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 have made regular appearances on 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've got an 'easy' solution' to prevent wines from being tarnished by the light - use dark glass bottles.

Ms Barrie said: 'If we are talking bottles, which is the reality for the vast majority of wine, that means the darkest possible glass, you know, black or dark amber is best because it blocks most light, particularly the most damaging wavelengths that we've mentioned.'