Only with wine is slurping encouraged. Observers may assume the wine slurp is a pretentious insider move, but before you balk: Slurping is the best way to get at retronasal aromas, from airborne molecules that rise into your nasal cavity from your throat when wine (or for that matter, all kinds of un-slurpable foods) is in your mouth.
You can help this process along by drawing air through the wine in your mouth—the air will pick up volatile aromas as it goes—and exhaling it through your nose. To do this, take a medium sip of wine, purse your lips, and, with your tongue lying in the bottom of your mouth, draw air in through the wine. Close your throat (if you don’t, you’ll inhale the wine—with explosive results) and exhale through your nose. If you’re doing it right you
a) won’t choke;
b) won’t dribble wine from your lips; and
c) will make a slurping sound that contradicts everything your mother told you about table manners.
The amount of wine you take in your sip is key—too little and you’ll smell nothing, too much and you’ll dribble on your shirt.
The retronasal aromas should confirm and add further detail to the nasal aromas—those you detected when the wine was in the glass. For example, maybe you first noticed a citrussy note and now you can tell that it’s actually grapefruit.
And what are a few rude sounds to stand between you and a greater enjoyment of wine?
Comments