Questions Uncorked

Mar 24, 2009

Hi Will,
Thanks so much for stopping by the blog. This is a question that comes up almost every time I conduct a tasting. It can be a little tricky to figure out at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll find yourself swirling everything!
The most common mistake that folks make when they are trying to learn how to swirl, sniff and taste is that they start off with their wine glasses filled with way too much wine. And that’s a sure way to end up with some sort of spill! Pour only an ounce or two of a white wine into a wine glass (I recommend starting with either water or white wine as it makes clean-up easier if you spill – red wine stains can be hard to remove from cloth or fabric). Then, hold the stem of your glass firmly with your fingers and start making circular motions with your hand. Now, 2 things to remember – 1) try to keep your hand motions smooth and 2) try to keep the motion from being an up and down one. If you go up and down, the wine is definitely going to start sloshing. If you go with more of a side to side motion it will be easier. You can make your circles clock-wise or counter-clock-wise, either way is fine.
If this doesn’t work too easily, another way to start to get the hang of it is to keep your glass on the table (as opposed to holding it in the air) and holding the base of your glass and keeping it pressed firmly on the table, you can make your glass go in small circles on the table. Just try to do this on a smooth surface – sometimes if you try it on a table cloth the table cloth can bunch up and the glass can get caught.
Once you try it a few times, I am sure you will get the hang of it very quickly! Let me know if you have any more questions!