Steve is right. But even properly bottled wine tends to oxidize when
bottled for a long period of time if you do not protect it with sulfites.
Somehow air gets to it even through the cork. If you are going to drink it
within a year or 2 you may be okay. But if you want to put some back for
extended aging it should be protected.

Ray

"Steve Waller" > wrote in message
...
> The active ingredient in campden tablets is usually potassium
> metabisulfite (occasionally sodium metabisulfite).
>
> Oxidation is caused by allowing oxygen acces to your wine, usually in
> unrestricted quantities. This can happen in several ways, here's the
> list that I can think of quickly::
>
> 1) allowing air lock to run dry
> 2) stirring too much and whipping air into the wine
> 3) not using metabisulfites which means that all air access will
> oxidize wine a bit
> 4) excessive headspace in carboy
>
> Steve
>
> On Sat, 17 Sep 2005 06:22:59 +0100, Alan Gould
> > wrote:
>
>>In article >, Ray Calvert
> writes
>>>
>>>Also, sulfites serve more than one purpose. One is to inhibit wild yeast
>>>and mold. This is not the most important purpose. Far more important is
>>>inhibiting oxidation which is wines' worst enemy.
>>>
>>Thanks for that observation Ray. Two points. Can I assume that by
>>sulfites you mainly mean Campden tablets, and what factors in winemaking
>>are likely to lead to oxidation? TIA.
>