Fri. 13th Night of Horrors!

[dananne]

With wife home from business trip and the start of a weekend, we decided to open a bit more anticipated wine last night. So, I pulled out a Lebanese Chateau Musar 1989. Corked! A bit frustrated, I pulled out a Musar 1994 (bought from a different store). Corked also! Becoming downright angry at this point, brought out the other 1994 and it too was corked! All three corks were moldy and/or displayed pretty significant seepage.

For those wondering, I store in a temp controlled 220 bottle cellar at 57 degrees with 70% humidity. Open bottles daily, and have not encountered a problem like this before, so I'm doubting it was the unit. Overall, looking back over tasting records, I've encountered cork problems in about 4 or 5 of my last 100 bottles opened (before last night).

Finally, pulled out a 1989 Marques de Murrieta Castello Ygay Gran Reserva. Despite showing a bit of cork problems, also, at this point I just decanted and hoped for the best. Seemed a bit over sweet and disjointed with woody taste.

All in all, opened over $100 of wine and had a pretty awful night.

Hoping for the best this evening . . .

By the way, from your experiences, what are usual store policies regarding corked bottles? Exchange? Sorry, out-of-luck? I've never gone back to a store before, but am thinking that they may want to know, as the two '94s almost certainly came from the same shipment.

[This message has been edited by dananne (edited 09-14-2002).]