You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can rate a wine by its cork. Low-quality wines use plastic corks or other cork substitutes that do not allow the wine to breathe. The next step up in the quality ladder are wines that use stoppers made of agglomerate cork. Better wines have solid corks, and the very best wines have beautiful waxed corks with the winery’s name carefully imprinted.  So, when a wine critic is not available, use the cork as your guide!