I opened the bottle of 1983 Château Mouton Rothschild with trepiration. Foil didn't spin, the cork was pushed out about 2 mm, mid shoulder ulage, not a pretty sight.
After pulling the cork, the view got even scarrier:
soaked cork
with
"mushroom top"
I could see easily the imprint of the embosed foil on top of the cork, covered with dried wine resedue.
But......the wine was alive , VERY alive and was singing songs of joy after 3 hours of Audouzing. Integrated fruit, sweet tannins, VERY long finish, color showed no signs of aging. VERY good wine and under $200 a bottle with at least 5-10 more years left in it, despite it's less than perfect storage.
I got it from Chamber Street Wine in NYC and will try getting some more.

Caveat Emptor!

At that age, a few bottles with poor storage conditions may be okay, but most are going to be in trouble. In fact, all will be bad unless the damage is recent and then they are all going to be on their way down.

A damaged Bordeaux is not going to make it 5-10 years more.

Good luck. Should be an interesting and expensive experiment. Hopefully also a pleasant one.

Quote:

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It had tannins and fruit to go the distance

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My point was that with damaged corks, tannins and fruit are not going to age/develop predictably.

Randy, you have an excellent point. Normally, I would never pick those bottles off the shelf, and even was thinking about sending them back, when I've opened the box few weeks ago.

But....what we tasted yesterday defies the perception and I have to go with scientific approach. I read somewhere recently:
"Scientist would never say "I know", but rather "I experienced" " and from yesterday's experience - I feel good about getting more bottles which came from the same lot (I asked) as the one we had yesterday. If I am wrong - I'll have nobody but myself to blame.