My father recieved 2 cases of wine from an importer/exporter friend of his. I did some quick searching, and believe they are inexpensive table wines. Not that that makes them bad, but I think they may be corked. I have never tasted a corked wine, but they have a musty scent and flavor. It is not overwhelming, but definitely there. My question is, are they truely corked, or just stored incorrectly. One is a 2001 Cabernet, and the other is a 2003 Nero D'Avola.

It's there when you open the wine and pour it into your glass or it's in the cases? If the wines are corked, you'll tell in the glass. If it's just the cases, take the wine out and put it in something else.

Maybe your glasses are musty from sitting in the cabinet? Not uncommon. And some wine has naturally funky aromas that are very different from corked wine. What are the wines?

Storage problems won't make the wine corked either. Usually the wine just ends up overheated and you can't necessarily tell from looking at the bottle. In fact, you often can't tell period - wine can be surprisingly resiliant.

Both cheap and expensive wines can be corked, so that won't make much difference. There are a few really expensive Nero d'Avolas, but most are pretty inexpensive and to me, pretty good too. So you may have some decent stuff there.

In any event, it's really unlikely that every single bottle in two cases of such different wines are going to be corked unless the importer just collected all the returns from his customers and gave them to your dad. And that would be so hilarious that you'd have to give him much respect.

They will not all be corked. When you open the wine it will smell of dank wet cardboard if it is corked

It smells more like old records or books that have been sitting around in the basement for a few years...

that's about right. How many are this way? And is it the wine after you open them? The bottles themselves may smell musty if they've been in musty cardboard, but that doesn't mean the wine is corked.

Pour it in to a glass and let it sit in the glass for a few minutes. If the smell persists, that's not good.

One thing you might do is go to a good wine store in your area and take the wine and ask them.

1 is Quill Creek 2001 Cab, had a hard time finding any info on this one. Tried this one first, cork smelled musty and wine followed suit. 2 is Romolo Buccellato 2003 Nero D' Avola, this definitely got better after it sat a bit. I think this one just has some wet, earthiness to it. I have yet to try the first bottle again. I took 2 of each from dad to I will certainly let you know.

And the suggestion to take it into my local wine guy is a good one, thanks!