Friday, Dec. 04, 2009

Which way do you swirl wine? Try this joke on your friends

By Andy Perdue, Wine Press Northwest

A couple of years ago, I was asked to give an impromptu wine-tasting demonstration to a group of friends.

While showing the group how to swirl the wine, I was asked, "Which way do you swirl? Clockwise or counter-clockwise?"

The person asked the question facetiously, but in a moment of inspiration, I replied, "counter-clockwise" - because that's the only way I can swirl it without spilling wine on myself.

When asked why, I had a second fit of inspiration - a rarity for me - and said, "Because we're tasting wines from the northern hemisphere. If we were tasting wines from Australia, New Zealand, Chile or South Africa, we would want to swirl it clockwise. Believe it or not, the wine will actually smell different."

Nobody believed me. So I decided to push this a little further.

I said, "Seriously, it's true!"

A few folks stopped laughing, but most of them still smiled, so I said: "No, I am really serious!"

About two-thirds of the group of 25 began to believe. I knew I had them on the hook, so I reinforced it:

"I am not kidding! It really does smell different if you swirl wines the other direction!"

The room went silent. Then a few people began to slowly swirl their wines clockwise. Before they could get much further, I said with a smile, "Just kidding."

I've now pulled this joke succesfully three times - once in a Walla Walla tasting room. Work on your delivery and you, too, will be able to fool your wine friends, too.