Bottle sickness refers to the state of a bottle showing unusually odd or poor quality which is sometimes apparent when a newly bottled wine is tasted. Bottle sickness goes away after a few days or weeks and never reappears in that wine. The exact cause for bottle sickness is not known, but it appears to be related to the abrupt changes in oxidation-reduction balance when an oxygen-starved wine in the tank gets bottled (and oxygenated temporarily). After the cork again seals oxygen out, the wine recovers, settles down and the sickness is over. It then tastes as it did in the tank prior to bottling. (Wine/Chemistry & Flaws)