The fascinating thing about the wine I had this evening is that, upon cutting away the foil bottle topper to reveal the cork, I was greeted with a fuzzy green-gray surprise on top of the cork. That's right, there was mold on the cork.
Honestly I did not know what to do. I've not seen this before though it's not all that uncommon. I knew that, if the cork was dessicated by the mold or if the mold made it through to the wine, it would probably be "corked" and warranting a return. But before leaping to conclusions I did some research.
The consensus was that there was no way to tell if the wine was bad without tasting it. I wiped and scraped off the mold and proceeded to uncork the bottle. The cork stayed (did not turn as I applied the screw) which was a good sign. I slowly pulled the cork up and studied the cork's nooks and crannies. Near the top there was indeed some nested mold. However, at about 1/3rd of the way down the mold stopped. I sniffed the bottle and was greeted by a nice bouquet and none of the "corked wine" stink that would warn me off.
I poured, swirled, sniffed - still nothing untoward. Taste. Fantastic!
I spared myself a trip to the wine shop tomorrow to return an otherwise fine bottle and did not have to forego the wine I wanted to taste tonight.
To be sure, caution was warranted. Had the cork displayed mold all the way down, I would have returned the bottle for an exchange. Had the wine poured cloudy or smelled musty and stinky, it would have been returned. But as it is, this is a nice treat.
Raise a Glass!
The info was helpful - I had never come across this before in my life until now. After sipping the wine, it tasted as if it was ok to drink, but I could not tell if the mold had seeped into the wine or not. The question I have now is whether it can be harmful in any way.
ReplyDeleteWe had the same experience tonight. I have a 30x hand held microscope and we all examined the mold. It looked like there were tiny worms squirming in it.
ReplyDeleteWe uncorked it and wiped off the top of the bottle, cleaned off several tartrate crystals from the bottom of the cork and had a fantastic glass of reisling!
I found the same thing. Is it harmful to drink? How can you be sure that there is no contamination?
ReplyDeletesame thing tonight.. 2003 Domaine du Vieux Chene table wine. Removed the top foil, saw the mold. As the corkscrew went in, I saw the cork breaking apart -- pulled out about 4/5 of the cork. Pulled the rest out in a separate pull. Bad sign, I supposed. Smelled OK, poured it and tasted it --- here is where it gets subjective. It did not smell foul, or musky, but it tasted odd, not what I expected from this wine, coated my tongue, and almost blocked the wine taste. Seemed like it was wine mixed with water or something. Not sure how much of it was my mind playing tricks on me and trying to convince me not to drink this thing that had hair on its cork :-). Being a conservative type when it comes to things like this, I decided to skip this bottle and open something else.
ReplyDeleteAnyone knows if there really is any risk in drinking this?
I had this happen last night. However, I wasn't as fortunate as some of you. The cork began to crumble as I opened it, and I'm still not able to get the cork out. I was thoroughly dissapointed as I really wanted a glass of wine last night!
ReplyDeleteI have just opened a bottle of Champagne and found mould on the inside of the cork! The wine tastes okay, as champagne goes, but l would like to know how mould can form on the inside of an otherwise sound,firm cork?
ReplyDeletethanks for this. I have a whole case of wine i bought from a vinyard a few hours away, and after a few years in the wine rack, mould appeared. I worried i would have to toss the whole batch out, but i'm looking forward to seeing if the mould has only kissed the surface. thanks again!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the confidence to open & try a '05 white burgundy w similar issues. taste & smell are the best tests, and this one seems fine. (though not quite as good as I'd hoped).
ReplyDelete