Wine by the glass is an excellent way to get your feet wet and start exploring wine, but if you are out to dinner with four or more people and everyone wants to order wine, then a bottle of wine often makes more sense (both from an economic point of view and from an experience point of view). The wines on the wine by the glass lists are there because they sell, and in general they’re going to be wines that are generally pleasing to most people. This doesn’t mean they are necessarily average, but you’ll rarely fine a wine by the glass in most restaurants that will change your life (and often that’s not what you are looking for, anyway).

Once you start to venture off into the bottled wine list, the doors of opportunity begin to really open to discover some truly amazing wines. First and foremost, I always recommend figuring out how much you are willing to spend before you even crack the wine list. This is very important, as it’s easy to get both overwhelmed and carried away when dealing with wine lists. Next (and again, this is before you even start looking at the list), try to come to a consensus with your dinner party if the bottle you are going to order will be red or white wine. Finally, eliminate any wine varieties that anyone at the table particularly dislikes. If you do all of this before you even start to look through the menu, you’ll have a vastly reduced pool of wines to consider and won’t struggle quite so much with ordering wine.

Most restaurants have someone who is in charge of the wine program, and some places have an actual sommelier. Don’t be afraid to ask your sever to send them over. These people can be an invaluable asset to selecting the right wine, especially if you equip them with a few boundaries including price, color, and possible varietals. Servers are pretty good about the wine by the glass menu, but once you delve deeper into the bottle list, it’s best to bring in the professional.  Don’t feel obligated to order what’s been recommended—again, these are recommendations, not commandments.  Helpful questions to ask a sommelier about the wines he or she recommends are flavor profiles, food pairings, and how challenging a particular wine is for a “novice” drinker.

Once you’ve decided on the wine, you’ll be brought the bottle. The presentation of the bottle is an important tradition and serves an important task, although I usually see people squirm or act like they are on a wine tasting TV show. The purpose for the presentation is twofold: first, it’s to show you that you are indeed getting the wine that you paid for, and second, it’s so you can check to see if a wine is corked or not. The wine industry has moved away from cork for some wines and replaced them with screw tops, so you’ll still be presented these wines as any wine but you won’t need to really check for corkage.

When you are presented with a wine, acknowledge that the wine that’s being presented is the wine you ordered. This is the cue for the server to open the wine and pour you a small taste. Typically this presentation is done to the person at the table who ordered the bottle. Once you are presented with a taste, gently swirl the wine in the glass and smell it. What you are looking for is anything that smells like wet dog, barn yard, or wet cardboard. All these smells are indications that a wine has been corked. If you smell these, inform the server that you believe the wine has been corked and send it back. It’s important to understand that wine does get corked and if you get a bottle of corked wine, the proper thing to do is to send it back.

If the wine smells okay then take a small taste to confirm that none of those elements are there. If you taste any of the elements that show it’s corked or if it tastes vinegary or off, then inform your server. Otherwise nod your approval and the server will pour the rest of your glass of wine and wine for everyone else drinking at the table.

Jumping up to ordering bottles rather than a glass can feel intimidating, but by narrowing your selections and setting your budget, it can be a real adventure.