The winemaking process has become much better understood over the last few years, and as a consequence, there are far fewer faulty wines in the shops than ever before. However, faulty bottles do occasionally crop up, and so it's good to be aware of the telltale signs that will indicate a poor wine.
Visual Checks
The colours of wines vary according to their grape variety and the climate in which they were made. If you have a white wine with a brownish-yellow tinge that you expected to be pale, or if a young red has a brownish tinge, then it's probably oxidised, and will taste dull and flat.
Whatever its colour, wine should be clear and bright. Bacterial spoilage is often indicated by cloudy wine, but these days this is extremely uncommon. However, try not to mistake cloudiness with shaken-up deposit. A mature red wine that has developed a dark, powdery or gritty deposit should be stood upright for a day to let this sediment settle, before decanting.
Never buy a bottle where the top of the cork doesn't sit flush with, or below the level of, the mouth of the bottle. A cork protruding from the bottle is a potential sign of a maderised (cooked) wine. You should also check that the level of wine in the neck of the bottle is not too low. Although there's always some variation, most wine levels should be well into the neck.
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