Ever put your nose into a glass of wine only to get a thoroughly unpleasant whiff of rotten eggs, cabbage, onion, or even tires?  These are sulfurous smells that most likely are the result of “reduction”. 

Should you swear under your breath and dump the wine out?  Maybe not!  Simply put, reduction is the opposite of oxidation, so some of these stinky smells can be cleared by just aerating the wine.   Get a decanter and splash decant the bottle, swirl it around and see if it doesn’t help. 

Tom Mansell is a Ph.D in chemistry and is the wine science editor for Palate Press.  Here’s a short video, courtesy of Palate Press, with Tom talking about reduction and how you might be able to cure it.