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A corked wine has an overwhelmingly musty scent due to the bacteria in a bad cork interacting with the wine. A wine that smells or tastes moldy or like wet cardboard is corked.
Corked wines are fairly rare, which is good since there is no way to detect a corked wine before opening and smelling or tasting it. Bottles with synthetic corks and screw tops, however, are guaranteed not to be corked, as those stoppers are not susceptible to the bacteria that causes corked wines.
At restaurants, when the waiter gives you the cork, you can smell it to ensure that the wine itself has not been ruined by a bad cork. If the cork smells musty, then sniff the wine: it too is probably corked. If this is the case, do not hesitate to send the bottle back and ask for a new wine.
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