Okay, I've read a lot of posts explaining how to spot a corked bottle, but I'm hoping someone can help me learn here.

Last night I had a .375 '99 Montelena Estate cab. I had this for the first time a little over a month ago and was very impressed. This time around it wasn't even close to the same wine. It didn't have the "wet cardboard" musty smell of cork, but it never opened up. I don't think that I am super sensitive to cork taint, but I believe I can normally spot it... maybe I'm wrong. This bottle just had no fruit to it. The nose was very muted, and it didn't get any better with time. This bottle seemed to have been robbed of everything that made the first one so impressive.

Was this a corked bottle? Has the wine shut down? Any thoughts? I'd be happy to try to explain my impressions of the wine further if that would be any help.

Thanks.

It could be a mild cork taint - not enough for a strong "wet cardboard" smell, but enough to mute the fruit. TCA is a substance like any other - a bottle can have a large or small amount of it, and your description really resembles a mild taint. Anyway, it could be other things: simply a bottle variation, a cooked wine, etc. If you had it once and it was good, it was probably some fault in this particular bottle.

knowinf montelena it was probably just closed down.