Stained Corks Question

Just another quick question about overheated wines.

I published a note on a Bordeaux I really enjoyed last weekend-1999 Chateau L'Evangile Pomerol. I really enjoyed the earthy, mushroomy, funky, savory character of this Merlot-based right bank wine, and would consider buying it again. There was NOT a ton of fruit forward character here-and this did not tsate anything like a Napa wine.

It was purchased at BevMo, so we are not talking about perfect 58 degrees storage. And, it was not stored perfectly in my apartment (although we are only now getting significant warm weather).

So-I did notice quite a bit of staining in the cork. The cork was not crumbly or otherwise damaged, and the capsule was not pushed up. And, like I said, I loved the wine. (A bit of funk did have to blow off, though).

Was the wine experiencing too much heat at some point, or can staining simply happen for other reasons (like how the bottle was laid down in storage).

When you say staining, what are you referring to?
Is it the red stuff going a quarter of an inch or so up the sides, more or less uniformly?
Is it a streak of red going up a crack or just going up the side of the cork, but not all the way?
Is it the top of the cork having some gooey stuff on it?

The only bottles that I've had a problem with (other than corked bottles) were the ones with gooey stuff on the top of the cork - and with a couple of those, I lucked out.

Maybe I'm just not very critical.

The staining pretty much went evenly up about 1/2 to 3/4 of the cork. No gooey stuff at all on top, and there was still that indentation.

It's not just me, either vis a vis the quality of the wine three or four other people really like it, too.

I've had varying amounts of wine creeping up the sides of the corks, even in wines of the same year from the same producer. I think it's probably variation in the cork itself, and as long as the cork doesn't leak and there's no evidence of displacement, I don't worry about it.

It's very tempting, of course, when you get a subpar bottle, to look around and try to find something to blame.

sounds pretty normal to me. in fact i'd be surprised if there weren't some staining. in any event the taste of the wine is the ONLY important thing.