dead

Wine description regarding shelf life and durability; see under tot.

Term for a negative judgement of a wine in the context of a wine evaluation or a wine review. Such a wine has reached the end of its life cycle and is undrinkable. Other terms are dead, "the wine is gone" and "wine corpse". The French "passé" is identical. A preliminary stage that is still just edible is referred to as overaged (superimposed). In a "dead" wine, almost all positive sensory characteristics have disappeared; essential components have lost their stability and expressiveness for good. The sensory and chemical changes described below occur primarily under typical ageing conditions and are not always present in full or to the same extent.

tot - Flasche Malmsey 1880, 5 verschiedene Flaschen, Heidsieck Monopole

Historical wine bottles: 1 = Malmsey 1880, Madeira variant; 2 = various old red wines; 3 = Heidsieck Monopole, found in a shipwreck. However, the bottles shown do not represent "dead" or spoilt wines, but are intended solely to illustrate the great age and appearance of wines that have been stored for decades or centuries. Some of the very old wines shown in pictures 1 and 3 (82 years old) were still drinkable.

Changes

The terms emaciated, brittle, bland, flat, hollow (empty) and over-aged describe quality states that typically precede - often in combination - the final stage...

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