Wine etiquette at a dinner party - swirling

Swirl away - unostentatiously of course.

Pls note re wine etiquette (on a less serious note). If one of your guests should accidentlaly spill some wine at dinner it is incumbent upon you to discreetly spill even more at a later time so as to lessen said guest's embarrassment.

This of course can lead to the incremental destruction of your dining room should you be entertaining a rowdy bunch of wine loving footballers. (oxymoron?)

Cheers! Martin

Hi, I'm a little new to fine wine and I found myself at a small dinner party tonight where there were some very nice red wines. There was an El Nido, a Chateau Montelena Cab, and another Spanish wine which I can't remember the name, but it was amazing. I was the only one there swirling my glass to get the aroma. I did it just slightly but usually before every sip. There were a couple of other people who did it on occasion but not very often. I really enjoy doing this, it seems to enhance the flavor. My question is, is it appropriate to swirl and take in the aroma before every sip in a social setting? Or is this only to be done at tastings?

I'm at bad person to comment on etiquette- one day there might be a statue of me in the Hall of Boorish Table Manners. I can't claim to be an authority on manners.

But my opinion anyway: As long as you are just trying the wine and not being ostentatious, no one should mind you swirling. Though I have to say that at a dinner party, where one assumes you are getting a full pour of each wine (as opposed to a wine tasting dinner with 10 people where pours might be 2 oz or less), I doubt I'd make a point of swirling and sniffing before every sip. Usually at dinner with friends (I'm thinking back, I've never taken notes on what I do) I guess I'd smell a wine, swirl, smell again, taste. After that, who knows? If it seems open and ready, doubt I'd specifically make a point of any more swirling. If it is tight, I'd probably (mostly unconsciously) give it a few swirls while in conversation. But whatever works for you should be fine. The only thing I'd say might be a violation of etiquette is if you stop and drop out of conversation, to then swirl madly, smell loudly and ostentatiously, and generally make your tasting the center of attention.

What vintages were the el Nido and Montelena? I generally love the latter, but the '03 Jumilla was way "too much" for my tastes on my one try.

Actually, I was very surprised myself, but there was no toast at this dinner party. It was very informal.

I'll take you're advice and try to taste before swirling sometimes, thanks. But I'm really curious about etiqette. Is it OK to swirl and smell before every sip at a dinner party?

- Tom

LOL. thanks for the help. I will.

And when no one else seems to notice that they are drinking really great wine.

Sometimes I catch myself swirling water! :-) really!

I wasn't making a point of swirling and sniffing before every sip. I just did it very slightly in fact. When I got home I was wondering if people thought I was acting like a wine snob or something, nobody else seemed that interested. There were only 7 of us btw. I didn't swirl madly before every sip, just a little bit. But for the most part nobody else swirled.

The el Nido was 06, the Montelena was 02, I'm sure of this but I still can't remember the name of the of the other spanish wine but it had a checkerboard label. And it was good.

- Tom

Moi aussi! (Translation: I am an Australian).

Cheers! Masrtin

It's worth trying with any wine IMO. Swirling encourages less volatile aromas to reach the nose - more volatile components will come through relatively stronger when not swilling.

And this is peculiar because ... ?

Nils

yeah, why I prefer non-stemmed water glasses!

Sounds like you were a perfect dinner guest. One must accept that others may not be as interested in the wine as we are.

Thanks, but I don't know for sure. I think I was fairly discreet about my swirling, I was just trying to get a little nose and enjoy the wines. And actually, I think the only other person doing it was the host. I'm actually going to be more discreet next time.

I now remember the other wine, it was Alto Moncayo. I finally rememebered Alto and did a web search on Spanish wines. Not sure of the vintage.

Haha. I'm not that bad yet! :-)

snipped-for-privacy@vicon.net wrote in news:k7Izl.3054$ snipped-for-privacy@nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com:

Swirling is ok, but try to avoid spitting.

Especially at your host/hostess ;-)

Godzilla

Now you tell me. I'll probably never be invited back! :-)

- T