There’s something ridiculous about a person who doesn’t know how to drink wine making off like he does. Just forget what all those pourers in Napa told you, and take it from me; I’m not American and I’ve been drinking wine since I was one.

The Swish & The Stem
The point is that you’re supposed to be comfortable drinking wine, as if it’s just any other beverage, like water. The point is not to act as if it’s some kind of special beverage that you need to drink in a special glass and hold in a special way. Hence, I do not believe it in holding-by-stem rule, or the ridiculous amount of swishing going on. (The idea behind both practices is that swishing helps both to aerate the wine and to allow you to smell the wine, and holding a glass by its stem reduces heat transfer.)

The Cork
You’ve got to have a highly developed nose to be able to tell if a wine has been corked by sniffing the cork itself. Why? Because you have to be able to smell beyond the corkiness of the cork to tell if the wine has been corked. If you don’t have a highly refined nose, refrain from making an ass of yourself by sniffing the cork.

Sending it Back
However, if you smell it, taste it and if you think it’s corked, then you think it’s corked and you have no choice but to send it back. It’s only in America they have no idea what corked means. Americans think it means the wine tastes bad. This is not the case.