Hi all,
I have a 23 year old wine. Ever since I was gifted the bottle, I have kept it in a small wine fridge. Today I took the bottle out, and I saw that the back label had intense mold on it. I cleaned the bottle with some water, remived the back label and dried it thouroughly.
Because of the mold I was a afraid that the wine had gone off, so I took a look at the cork. There is some white mold on the top of the cork. As fas as I can see, there is no mold on the inside of the cork.
So now I have two questions: is the mold on the top of the cork bad for the wine? Is it advisable to clean the mold and if so, how?
Thanks!
by FattieCattie
8 Comments
Drink the wine it has nothing to do with inside the bottle. Check humidity in your wine fridge though, but moulds on 20+ year corks capsules and labels are common and no problem, glass and cork are both quite resistant to the moulds in question.
Should be fine, just make sure you wipe it off with a napkin or something. Usually a good sign its been in a humid place from what I understand.
Hard to see any mold, but the good news is that it doesn’t migrate through the cork.
So what ? You said it’s 23 years old, having mold is a good sign of good storage
You can just wipe it off and it’ll be fine. It won’t make it into the wine
As long as the cork isn’t compromised and there’s no seepage or off smell, the wine inside is usually unaffected.
It’s probably fine. Wipe off the mold, wash it. Open it. If there’s no mold on the inside wipe out the stem and enjoy. It’s usually not a problem unless it’s black mold or moldy inside. Smell the wine to see if it smells moldy too. If you’re concerned toss it—it’s not worth getting sick over.
[This is the cellar at Lopez de Heredia](https://personalwinebuyer.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/img_0098.jpg). I think you’re fine.