Smelling the Cork:

You order wine in a restaurant, and the waiter puts the cork down beside you. 
You are supposed to:  1.  Smell it?  2.  Feel it?  3.  Glance at it, and ignore it?

The answer is number 3. 

The practice of placing the cork on the table dates from the eighteenth century when wineries began branding corks to prevent unscrupulous restaurateurs from filling an empty bottle of Château Expensive with inferior wine, recorking it, and then reselling it.  In honest restaurants, the cork was placed on the table so the diner could see the name on it matched that on the label -- a guarantee that the wine had not been tampered with.  Admittedly, feeling the cork tells if you the wine was stored on it's side and that be a clue to it's soundness.  But a moist cork is no guarantee that the wine is in good condition.  Similarly, a dry cork does not necessarily portend a wine gone awry.

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