What should I do when my wine's cork crumbles? I bought a bottle of wine the other day, and when I attempted to open it, the cork crumbled to pieces! I was eventually able to dig a hole through the cork, and pour the wine (slowly) through a coffee filter. But for the future, I'd like to know:


Is there a more elegant way to open a ruined cork than stabbing it repeatedly and hoping for the best?
Should I even be drinking wine like this? Does a ruined cork mean the wine has somehow spoiled? For reference this was a bottle from 2004.
The best way to take out bad corks is with an Ah So. Keeps the crumbly corks together better. 





Instead of picking at the cork, push it back into the bottle and then strain the wine through a stainless steel tea strainer like this:




Many times the wine is good, but when the cork is that bad it's probably oxidized to hell, vinegar or corked. The only way to tell is to smell and/or taste it.