Is my wine still ok to drink?

Question

I bought a bottle of wine yesterday and when I opened it today, there was white gunk on the underside of the cork. Is it still ok to drink and exactly how ok is it to still be drinking it? Many thanks.

Answer 1

yeah i think it's still ok.

Answer 2

Yes it is fine.  If wine goes bad it smells and tastes like vinegar.. because it is vinegar.  So if it tastes fine it is okay to drink

Answer 3

White gunk. If it isn't wax then I would toss that bottle.  Wax is often used to seal a pricey bottle of wine. Otherwise, I would say that you have a bottle of moldy vinegar. If it was good yesterday, it should still be good today.

Answer 4

What kind of gunk?

If it was fuzzy, then that would probably be mold, which is not good to drink.

But if it was kinda crystal-y, or looked like wet baking soda, then you'll be alright. It was probably just tartaric acid crystals. Its a natural acid which is produced in winemaking, and is usually harvested from the barrels and sold as Cream of Tartar.

Sometimes it can start a crystal colony on the cork of a bottle, since the cork provides a good foothold for seed crystals. But its perfectly safe.

Answer 5

The underside of the cork like the side that touches the wine, or the opposite side?  If it's on the side of the cork touching the wine, it's probably tartrate crystals, and they're completely fine to drink, although they might be tart and bitter.  If it's a slimy, white gunk, it's probably lees (sediment), and it's totally fine, and probably tastes good.  

If the white gunk is on the side of the cork that doesn't touch the wine, it's probably mold, and since it didn't touch the wine, it's also completely fine.  It's very rare for mold to grow inside of a wine without oxygen.