This Stinks!

If wine were a religion, Verona Italy’s Bottega del Vino would be its cathedral. And at this Mecca for wine lovers, when a bottle of wine is ordered, the capsule is skillfully turned into a cork holder, remaining attached to the neck of the bottle. Then, the first ounce or so of wine is poured into a glass, which is then carefully turned to slowly coat its entire inside. This same wine is then transferred to the next glass, which goes through the same process, and this is continued until all the diners’ glasses have been coated with wine.

It’s really mesmerizing to watch this ritual, which the Italians call avvinare. But it is not at all carried out for showmanship. Indeed, it has a most practical purpose. It is used to rid the glass of any malodorous taint from soap or rinse agents.

As I travel through the US for my job and dine out several times a week, I am finding more and more smelly glasses that can often make a wine smell corked or off. In fact, at one wine dinner, after sniffing my first wine, I turned to my guests and apologized for the corked bottle. They all looked at me with great surprise. None of them found the wine to be tainted. I then proceeded to swirl the wine in my glass, emptied it, and then refilled. All was as it should be.

Although I have seen the avvinare process used at some restaurants here in the US, (New York’s city famed Babbo is one example.), I fear it will never catch on given the manpower and time constraints. But this does not mean, you can’t do it yourself. Next time, when dining out before you sniff the cork, sniff the wine glass. If it smells off or like soap, ask the waiter to pour a little wine in your glass and proceed to avvinare your dining companions’ glasses.

But please don’t make a show of it; be subtle. There’s enough pretentiousness about wine already. The video below demonstrates how to do this without any affectation.