Wine can be "corky" or "corked", depending on who is saying it, which means the cork was contaminated with a specific chemical compound (TCA) that makes it smell and taste awful in varying degrees. This is why you taste a wine at a restaurant first. Don't smell the cork though, look at it to make sure the bottle isn't counterfeit and there is no bleed through. Crystals of tartrate may be on it if it's an aged bottle, which can be OK.
I have my wife taste the wine, she's better at it than I am.