Bad wine, good

net says...

Welcome. As Michael and Ian have already addressed the salient points in your post, I will not persue that, as I agree with both.

However, I would like to ask about your statement, "While turning my bottles ... " Many red wines throw sediment as they age. It is generally best to let sleeping bottles lie. That sediment falls to one side of the bottle as a deposit. When you serve the wine, you want to separate that sediment from the wine as well as is possible, with either your cautious pouring, or decanting. Turning the bottles stirs up the deposit(s) and, at best, forces it to filter back through the wine to attain the lowest level in the bottle. I like to leave the bottles in position in the cellar, and even when I move them about (as little as is possible to accommodate new wines, and help with my cataloging) keep the lable at the top, rather like the whitewash mark on Port bottles. I will then stand the bottle in the cellar for many hours (days?), before I pour it, to allow much of this sediment to slide down the bottle to the bottom. Now, inspecting the capsules is a good thing, for, as you found out, corks can and do leak.

Hope this concept of keeping the bottles in one orientation for their cellar experience doesn't lead to a flame-war, but so be it.

In a similar thread, "Wine Gone Bad?" or similar, I recounted my encounter with a 1955 Taylor Port with a bad cork, and the surprising results. I STILL have not actually tasted a '55 Taylor Vintage! :-{

Hunt