I have found several cases of unopened wine, why would liquor store throw away ?

[Hannah Desmond]

I live near a gourmet grocery/fine wine store. This morning I found about 5 cases of wine. Some Merlot from Washington State, French wine, California chardonnay. The dates are from 1994 through 1997. Does anyone have any ideas? The bottles are not opened. Is there something that happens when the corks dry out? I opened a bottle of merlot and it tastes good, very strong.Any input would be appreciated.

[Innkeeper]

You didn't mentioned if the cases were open, or if all in each case was the same. If it was a mixed bag of bottles in opened cases, it could be because they thought it was past its prime, and could not sell it at clearance. Even if the Merlot was the oldest, it shouldn't be past good. Depending on the bottling, the Chardonnay may be over the hill even if it was the newest, but not likely. You don't say what the French Wine was, so can't even guess there. Another, possibility is that they didn't mean to discard it. Among the possibilities are they left it out for a restaurant to pick up for cooking wine; an employee stashed it out there for later pick up; or who knows.