Moldy Cork??

[NarSki]

My husband & I (new to this world of wine) bought some wine from a local winery and when we opened it up to drink one night we thought the cork looked moldy and it smelled a bit musty. We tasted the wine anyway and it tasted absolutely terrible. So is this why you smell the cork when you open a bottle of wine? Is this a common thing? Unfortunately we gave a few bottles of this particular wine to my parents as a Christmas present. We warned them as they have not opened it yet but I'm wondering it it is likely that those bottles will be bad?

[Kcwhippet]

Hopefully, you saved the bottle and cork. If you take it back where you got it, they will gladly replace any bad bottles or refund your money (this is virtually universal anywhere you purchase wine). Generally, you can expect a small percentage of cork finished bottles to become "corked", which can make the wine taste like wet cardboard or a sweaty horse (or any number of other awful descriptions). The percentage of corked wines varies depending on whom you talk to about the subject. Estimates range from 2% to 10%, but I don't think I've seen more than maybe 20 - 25 bottles in all the thousands I've opened. Unless something disastrous happened at the winery, chances are only your bottle is the bad one. Corks that are moldy on top aren't always an indicator of bad wine inside, however. I've had many bottles over the years with outwardly moldy corks with absolutely splendid wine inside.

[NarSki]

Being the novice that I am ;o) I just discovered the "search" feature on this board and have found all kinds of info on moldy corks! No we didn't save the cork or the wine, just dumped it down the drain. As I said we are newbies and didn't know what to do. We have bought wine from this winery before and have really enjoyed it. I didn't know if it would be proper to notify the winery or not...and well I didn't know if we were imagining it or what. But I'm pretty sure I understand the smelling of the cork thing now. I'm no expert but I really like those plastic corks better anyway.

[NarSki]

Oh wait but after reading all this info...I of course have another question. What is the difference between "Corked" and "Cooked"? This particular wine tasted absolutely terrible. There was no way you could miss the awful taste and it seems that "corked" wines are more subtle in the "bad" taste. This wine was truly bad and I've had it before so I know that I like the wine. Any insight here?