Opened a bottle of red wine and found hard build up of sediment on bottom of cork. Safe?!

There can be any number of reasons for the sediment, but it's fairly common. You shouldn't worry about it, unless the wine maker put ham in the wine when he bottled it.

In all likelihood, what you have on the cork is a build up of titrates. Tartaric acid is the primary acid that's found in wine and it can crystalize and build up on the cork. Sometimes it is also a chemical reaction between the wine and any leftover disinfectant (like chlorine) that was used to clean the cork. In both cases, it doesn't mean the wine is bad.

As a general rule, to keep your corks moist (so they won't let in oxygen and render the wine undrinkable), you should store your wine on its side. Storing wine upright for a few weeks is not going to be a problem generally, but it could lead to shrinkage problems over time. It is certainly not the cause of the sediment build-up, by the way.

A final note: tartaric acid also builds up on white wine, but as you might guess, it's not dark in color (titrates take on the color of the wine). If you find that you have a significant buildup of titrates on your wine, then you may also have some in the bottle. They are not harmful, but you might get a better drinking experience if you strain the wine through cheesecloth or coffee filters (though many wine snobs will tell you that a coffee filter leaves a bad taste, I've never found that to be true).

All kinds of sediments can accumulate on a cork. Some are OK; some are not.

Hard white crystals are tartaric acid. The wine is fine, but it suggests that it wasn't stored optimally. It's perfectly safe and if it tastes fine, go for it.

Some wines will get grape sediment on the cork. The sediments usually accumulate on the bottom, but if the bottle was stored upside down, they can get on the cork. (Wines are sometimes stored with the corks down precisely to help rid it of sediment). These wines are just fine.

Or it could be mold or other rot on the cork. These usually happen on wines that were stored upright for a very long time, not just the 1-2 weeks in your house but on the shelf at the store. The cork dried out, allowing air into the bottle.

Start by looking at it. If it's a weird color, or furry, or slimy, it's off. Then give the cork a sniff. If the odor is off, it's mold. If the odor is wine-y, then it's just sediment and it's fine.

That's where the old gag about sniffing the cork came from, but you're really just looking for off odors, not evaluating the quality of the wine. That's done in a a glass. In the old days, a sommelier would taste your wine in a special glass around his neck, but these days it's rarely done. Besides, most wine you get in a restaurant that has a sommelier has been stored properly.

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The bottle you purchased may have been stored on its side at a downward angle which enabled the sediment to gravitate towards the cork.
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from http://www.nissleywine.com/wine_tips.htm
Decanting is recommended for wines with sediment. Often an older wine will throw particulate matter such as pigments or tartrate crystals. A younger wine may have tartrate crystals. First agitate the bottle to loosen any sediment that is clinging to the side. Then allow the bottle to rest upright until the sediment has settled to the bottom. The time depends on the type of sediment, with tartrate crystals settling rather rapidly (half an hour) and pigments requiring much longer (several days). You may want to allow two weeks to be on the safe side. If you wait longer, you will not hurt the wine.
Remove the capsule and cork carefully without tilting the bottle. Use a cloth to wipe off the rim of the bottle. Find a bright light or window. Position a carafe or a row of glasses so that they are handy. Hold the bottle at eye level against the light so that you are looking through the wine. Lift the carafe or a glass to the neck of the bottle. Tilt the bottle slowly and begin pouring the wine slowly and continuously. Do not stop pouring until you see the sediment reach the neck of the bottle, because the sediment will be agitated as soon as you move the bottle toward its upright position.

If it smells and tastes OK, it's fine. If it was otherwise, believe me you'd know it.

Hearty congrats on keeping your wine until it matures - I'm so tired of these wine-makers who issue their wine while it's still in nappies, and then disguise its adolescence with a helping of Merlot or an injection of oak. I opened a 12-year-old bottle of South African Pinotage a few days ago, and it was very grateful. However, the best way to store wine is on its side, so that the wine is in constant contact with the cork. (Otherwise you run the risk of getting a crust on the cork, as you have, or - even worse, because this will ruin it - the cork shrinking and letting the air in).

By the way, a good wine that will stand being aged repays decanting before you drink it - i.e. pouring it from one vessel to another to expose it to the air. If you haven't got a decanter, pour it into a jug a couple of hours (at least) before serving, rinse out the bottle - to deal with any sediment that might have collected in it - and then pour the wine back into the bottle. And let a red wine reach room temperature gradually - and it's worth remembering that 'room temperature' isn't always the temperature that we keep our over-heated houses at.

Is there an interesting recipe to share, about what you planned to eat with it?

Sediment is perfectly fine, and very commonly found, in red wine.

Also, store your wines on their side until the day you plan to drink them. It keeps the cork moist.

I'm a sommelier.

Absolutely safe, you can choose to decant in a different container as there might be sediment at the botom too.

The truth is in the taste. If it was corked it wouldn't taste good. I would go for it.

VERY SAFE