I have. On the very rare occasion, the wined is corked. I get an exchange, not a refund.

I've always wondered how obvious corked wine is. Having I think never tasted it. Makes me paranoid I'd be wrong.

It is more obvious to some people than others. Many people just assume its bad wine but will drink it anyway.

Is it seriously vinegared taste or just weirdly pungent? I'm betting I'd drink it anyway cause I didn't know better.

I do love a good sipping balsamic.

No it is not vinegar like at all, the wine tastes pretty tasteless, but there is an unpleasant smell, does smell a bit like a cork might taste.

The odour is similar to well-used running shoes.

You don't taste the wine, you check if it's corked.

Cork is the only reason why you would normally return a bottle of wine. Even in restaurants. They will probably allow you to return it if you dont like, but it's not the reason why they ask you to taste it. It's for the cork.

Most restaurants in the UK serve house wines from screw tops, but they still ask you to taste it when they bring it to the table. Is it just to make it seem fancy?

Yeah thats just to make them seem fancy. Again most restaurants will allow you to return a bottle if you don't like the taste of it but it's not why they ask you to taste it.

may just be me, but if your waiter is playing sommelier with a screw top house wine then yes, it's just to seem fancy :)

Mostly to seem fancy I think, although a wine can be bad in a screw top too (otherwise we'd see more of them).

i have, from whole foods. the wine had gone bad.