Thanks for your all your feedback, Miclan, Cathy and Antonello (may I call u Anton in the future?) You have a much coveted job. In fact to be a wine consultant and sommelier is my ultimate dream job! It's probably a bit late for me to do this course now though but hey, I am sure I can learn heaps from you.

Now back to the topic, I believe smelling of the cork is one way of making sure if the wine is not tainted (TCA). Of course the smell of TCA is also very obvious, most of the time one would know it as soon as the cork is pulled out. Maybe there are times it is not as obvious.

However, sampling a small amount of wine when the sommelier / waiter first pours it is more important. Sometimes the cork may look and smell ok but the wine somehow does not (it could have sediments, CO2 (second fermentation in the bottle or whatever).

Well, the point is that smelling the cork, examining it to make sure it is in good condition and sampling the small amount before the restaurant waiter/sommelier pours it for other guests is a process of making sure we get the wine we expected and what it should taste like. (I don't mind smelling the nice aroma on a cork but I will probably leave it to the sommelier to smell the tainted one!! he hehh )

However, since the sommelier school recommends smelling of corks, it must be ok.

Cathy, not all waiters know about wines (even though they should) so I would trust my own judgement.

Miclan, I wish I could write Italian as good as you write English! There is nothing wrong! And I promise you I will smell your cooking if I have the opportunity to dine at your restaurant. I love lasagna, gnocchi, linguine, and certainly tiramisu and gelato!

I do not think I have ever seen a wine steward in action here in the US. Most of the times they simply uncork the wine and leave the bottle on the table. Not to mention they do not even let you smelling the cork because they put it in their pocket.
I would like to ask another question: is it acceptable to ask the waiter to leave the cork next to the bottle in order every guest, or at least the one who ordered the wine, can examine it?

Miclan, I wish I could write Italian as good as you write English! There is nothing wrong! And I promise you I will smell your cooking if I have the opportunity to dine at your restaurant. I love lasagna, gnocchi, linguine, and certainly tiramisu and gelato!

I supposed the culture of wine was well established in Italy, but according to what miclan said, there is no difference from other countries, which is pretty unbelievable to me.
I have always thought in Italian restaurant in Italy wine service and food service were taken in high consideration, in my opinion, only France could beat Italy on this.
I mean, Italy is known worldwide for its rich food and wine heritage and the idea people do not usually pay attention on this is pretty hard to understand.

You are right about one thing: wine culture in Italy is well established and it historically played an important part in the culture of this country. No matter how hard this is hard to believe, wine service in Italy is not always impeccable and appropriate. The main cause is lack of competence and professionality. In many restaurants they believe serving wine simply means uncorking a bottle (even with a noisy "pop") and leave the bottle on the table.
I do agree with you about this to be pretty unbelievable, but that's how things are now in many Italian restaurants. Things are changing, though. The culture of wine is improving and there is more awareness about wine service and people is getting more and more exacting on this. However we are still far from a reasonable and appropriate wine service, just like - in my opinion - most of the restaurants in other countries.

I think one of the reasons why wine service is usually poor is that trained and expert personnel is very expensive. I can see this in the restaurant where I work at. I once proposed to my boss hiring a real sommelier and he said it would have been too expensive. Most of the times in restaurants wine is served by waiters who have no knowledge or competence about wine and wine service. I think this may change in the future, but not in this moment. I think it will take time for things to change.

This certainly sounds like a serious issue.. Like many, I too assume that because Italians have a deep wine culture, I have a certain presumption and expectation that serving and drinking wine in Italy will come with the right ettiquette and even style.

Sounds like an unfortunate fact that this isn't the case. Miclan has a point, many restauranteurs only care about profits and less about quality. I can understand that hiring a proper wine waiter or sommelier is more expensive than Jack the waiter but ultimately, it reflects the image and quality of the restaurant itself.

I tend to agree with Anton that this has to start with customers and if people can notice the difference (of quality) in other restaurants, they will go there.

Restaurant owners will recognise this and ultimately have to provide a better service. However, if most customers don't give a dime about the levels of service, they are either ignorant or they are not into wine themselves.

I know a lot of people are intimidated when they are served wine at a restaurant and they will not question anything that is served. One or two may check the cork or taste the wine condition but most will simply accept the wine in whatever way they were served, rightly or wrongly.

This lack of wine education is also part of the problem. For instance, I know many restaurants in this city simply do not have a proper place (let alone a cellar) to store wines. Fluctuating temperatures or sometimes effects from direct sun may not be ruled out. Maybe the majority of people cannot tell the difference and perhaps the level of complaints restaurants receive is far less than what they deem as necessary to "make a change".

There is no easy solution to this but it has to start from somewhere. The wine industry too should have a part in this. With wine education and customer demands, the rest will follow suit with time. Let us hope things will change for the better.

We have to complain about what we do not like and go somewhere: on the long run they will realize what's wrong in their restaurants.

This could surely be a good way for changing things, however - in my opinion - it would take time to show significant effects. I think we should spread a better wine culture instead. Not only by means of magazines or media, we all should also tell our friends about the differences, we have to share our opinions, to bring up this subject and to have them realize the difference between a good service and a bad one: drinking wine is not just emptying a glass of wine into your stomach!!

I think every decent wine lover knows the difference between drinking wine and tasting wine, that's why we wine lovers should make something in order to claim for a better service in restaurants. I agree with you, drinking wine is not just emptying a glass into your stomach!

I agree with what you're saying, anuway it is not always easy to have people understand this, in particular at restaurants!!!! However I too think we should do something in order to change things.
To be confident, I love the romance of wine and I hate seeing people ruining all that by paying little or no attention on important details!!!

I think you guys are missing an important point: good wine service has a cost. It takes qualified and trained personnel, last but not the least, it takes the culture of service. I can tell this by looking at what happens in Italian restaurants, and as far as I am concerned and as far as I read in this forum, things seem to be quite the same elsewhere.

I think you guys are missing an important point: good wine service has a cost. It takes qualified and trained personnel, last but not the least, it takes the culture of service. I can tell this by looking at what happens in Italian restaurants, and as far as I am concerned and as far as I read in this forum, things seem to be quite the same elsewhere.

Ok, wine service has a cost. You should also consider we go to the restaurant because we want to have nice food and nice wines, in case we are going to have just ordinary food and ordinary wine, not to mention ordinary service, we'd better stay home or change the restaurant. After all we clients are not coming to restaurants and claim to eat and drink for free, we do pay what the restaurants give us!!

This subject seems to be pretty serious to us. We complain about wine service in restaurants but we have never said how this service should be. Maybe there are many ways to serve a wine in restaurant and all are just acceptable. Or maybe there is only one formal way to serve wine and no one in restaurants knows it.
I think we should consider wine service as the act of uncorking and pouring wine and the quality of glasses in the table as well as serving temperature.
Maybe they uncork wine poorly but they serve it at the right temperature and proper glasses, and I would prefer such a condition instead of the other!

I think wine service should be considered as a whole and not just glasses, temperature, uncorking seen as being one unrelated to the other. Wine service is made of all those details at once.
Of course it is better to have the right glass and wine served at the right temperature instead of an impeccable uncorking, however I do not agree to see these phases apart from the rest.
Every part of wine service has a reason and every action is done because makes sense in the service, not just because it is formal.