You order a bottle of wine at a nice restaurant, and when it's opened, you sheepishly take a sip, not really sure of what you're doing. Here, some basic skills to help you pick up your glass with confidence the next time a sommelier pours you a taste.

1. Ditch the cork. Sniffing the cork tells your absolutely nothing. As long as the cork is intact and moist to the touch - this means the bottle was sealed tightly - it's good to go.

2. Pick up the stem or base of the glass. Proper etiquette calls for holding your wine glass by the stem or base to prevent the heat from your hands from warming up the wine. Taking the glass by the bowl for a moment, though, shouldn't dramatically affect the temperature.

3. Swirl. Don't be afraid to really swirl your wine around in the glass. It allows the air to flow through, causing the flavors to wake up as the alcohol evaporates. Hold your glass either by the base or stem and start off slowly until you reach a good swirling momentum.

4. Take a look. If your table is laid with a white tablecloth, tip your glass at a 45-degree angle and examine the wine's color and clarity against the white background. Just looking at a wine reveals plenty about its characteristics. As they age, red wines tend to develop an orange/brown tint, while white wines grow more golden. Older wines may also have some sediment, which doesn't damage the flavor. And as the wine runs down the side of the glass, the drops or 'legs' will tell you how alcoholic it is. The slower the drops run down the glass, the more alcoholic or 'heavy-bodied' the wine.

5. Sniff the wine. Check first for 'cork taint,' a general term that describes wine that's spoiled, most often by a compound called TCA that adds a moldy, 'wet cardboard' smell. Once wine is 'corked,' it can't be fixed. Alert your sommelier immediately. In some cases, there may be especially funky wines that may or may not be corked. The best way to judge is if you've had that particular bottle before, and it tasted differently.

6. Think mouthwash. You may look pretentious doing it, but take a decent-size sip from your glass and swirl it around - as you would a mouthwash. The wine should come in contact with all the surfaces in your mouth. Then suck in your wine through the front teeth - be careful it doesn't go down the wrong pipe - so that you can aerate the wine as you drink it and shoot the aromas straight to your nose. Try practicing with water for starters.

Your final judgment on a wine depends on your own preference. Perhaps the bottle doesn't match your food, or you find it a bit too harsh on the tannins. Yes it's perfectly fine to send back wine that's not spoiled if you truly don't like it. Of course, that takes some confidence.