Inherited some wines and would like to find out about them.

[hotwine]

The "mud" in the bottle is sediment, quite normal in older wines. Try to avoid disturbing that, to avoid stirring it up and clouding the wine.

See if you can turn the foil capsule gently by hand. If it's loose enough for you to do that, it means there's likely been no leakage past the cork, which happens when corks dry out and shrink. If the foil won't turn, it's likely stuck by dried wine under it, in which case the wine is very likely oxidized ("gone bad"). As KC said, look at the fill level in the bottle - the height of the wine in the neck of the bottle; should be very close to the bottom edge of the foil capsule. If it's more than half an inch lower than the capsule edge, that's not a good sign. Look for tiny air holes in the very top of the foil capsule; if those show any brown residue or stickieness (or that stuff appears anywhere else around the capsule edges), that's a sign of leakage under the foil.

What you're looking for is clues to the condition of the wine without having to open it. But the only sure way to check the condition is to pull the cork and give it a try.