Broken Cork?

When I was opening a 2005 Drouhin Saint Veran last night I had no more than inserted the cork screw and started to give a pull when the cork snapped right in half. In all the years I have been opening wine I have never had a cork snap that easily. I was using a waiters style cork screw, as always, and applied almost no pressure before the cork failed. The bottom half of the corked seemed nearly rotten and came out in pieces. Though I did not like the wine much it did not seem to be spoiled in anyway. Has this happened to anyone else with such a young wine?

[Robin Garr]

Sam, I'll hit something like that on occasion, typically with a "modest" European wine. I generally just make the snap judgment that it's poor quality control with industrial-quality cork, but I can't substantiate that with anything but prejudice.

Frankly, with young wines, I can't say I see a consistent pattern of damaged wine under these iffy corks (assuming there's no coincidental TCA issue). If the wine did seem a little oxidized, though, I would be strongly inclined to assume a connection between faulty cork and air ingress.