Yesterday, while uncorking a bottle of wine I recieved as a gift, I ran into a problem I've never had before. I was using a waiters corkscrew to remove the cork from the bottle. I burried the corkscrew sufficiently deep into the cork, but when i tried to pull the cork, the crew ripped out through the center. I tried the corkscrew again, but the cork just started to disintigrate. I finally decided to just push the cork in and filter the wine before serving it. However, when I tried to push the remnants of the cork in, the sides were firmly adhered to the bottle. I ended up piercing a large hole in the cork and filtering the wine into a clean empty bottle through a coffee filter. For what it's worth, it's a 1994 Callaway Cabernet Sauvignon that my parents have had since '94.
Thanks, Adam