Today I'd love to share 8 fun tips for drinking wine! It's nerdy, but I like learning etiquette tips (do you?) and thought you might like to hear these fascinating wine dos and don'ts before heading out to holiday parties and romantic dinners. Below, I wrote out the tips, and the genius
Gemma Correll illustrated them. Here goes...
1. Fill red wine glasses 1/3 full, white wine glasses 1/2 full, and sparkling wine 3/4 full.
2. Twist the bottle at the end of pouring a glass of wine, to prevent drips (and to give it a flourish!).
3. Cheers! When clinking glasses, make eye contact with the other person. Otherwise, according to French superstition, you'll risk seven years of bad luck (read: bad sex). You also should clink glasses individually with each person at the table without crossing anyone's arms.
4. If someone is toasting
you (your wedding, your birthday, your general awesomeness), don't take a sip. Just smile and look humble.
5. Always hold your wine glass by the stem. Many people mistakenly think you only need to hold white wine by the stem (so you don't warm up the wine), but experts say you should hold red wine by the stem, too, so you can see its color and clarity, as well as to avoid smudging the glass with your fingerprints. Otherwise, wine snobs might call you a "bowl grabber"! :)
6. On the table, your wine glass goes to the right of your water glass.
7. While taking a sip, you should politely look into your glass. (And not at another person, if you're in the middle of a conversation.)
8. The host's duty is to make sure glasses stay filled. "My eyes go to empty glasses immediately," wine expert
John Thoreen says. "It's a real radar thing for me."
9. Or happily forget all the tips above, and just eat, drink and be merry!
Hope you enjoyed these! Thanks again to
Gemma for the awesome illustrations. xoxo
P.S. A
lipstick trick with wine, and the
#1 etiquette tip to remember for the holidays.
(Illustrations by
Gemma Correll for
A Cup of Jo. Thanks to
Shoko for research help. Tips via
Primer,
SFGate and years of drinking experience:)
Happy (almost) New Year! This was a light week on the blog, but next week we'll be back to our regular scheduled programming. Do you have any fun plans for tomorrow night? Alex and I will be heading to our friends' apartment for blinis and Champagne, while Toby will sleep in his travel crib in their bedroom. Quiet New Year's Eves are my favorite. Have a wonderful weekend, and here are a few fun posts from around the web...
