Only one in four Britons will send back a bottle of wine if it is off, it was revealed yesterday.
On average, one bottle in 20 of the 930 million bottles drunk in this country every year is off, according to industry figures.
Yet it is estimated that only a quarter of these are returned to the shops - most of which offer a refund or replacement without quibbling.
What is not known is if the bad bottle is actually drunk - perhaps by dinner party guests not wishing to make a fuss - or poured down the sink.
Off-licence Thresher, which made the findings, said the only reason it could think of that people would not return sub-standard bottles was because many feared they would look stupid or were not confident enough about wine.
A spokesman said: ''It is bizarre because the British now drink a lot of wine and know a lot about it. We are no longer inexperienced about wine.
''But too many still regard wine as a minefield of indecision and fret. An amazing number of people are clearly afraid to return something they're not happy with.''
The spokesman added: ''If nobody tells us what's wrong then we can't put it right.''
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