9 Crazy-Helpful Wine Tips to Make You Look Sommelier Smart

If an opened bottle of wine has sat on your counter for too long, there's a chance it has gone bad and will taste terrible. To check to see if your wine has gone bad, smell it (it shouldn't smell musty whatsoever), taste it (if red wine tastes as sweet as dessert wine, it has been overexposed to heat), check the cork (it shouldn't be slightly pushed out of the bottle), inspect the color (make sure red wine doesn't have a brownish hue), look for chemically flavors (time to toss), and see if it's fizzy (unless it's a sparkling wine, it shouldn't be).