06/13/07 Toasting

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and June is really a month for all kinds of celebrating  weddings and graduations top the list. Of course with celebrating comes lifting your glass in a toast. There are many styles of toasting and today we'll explore the ceremony and the part where we clink the glasses. Toasting is a long observed custom paying honor to a host a guest and friends alike  and one of the most important aspects of it seems to be the touching and the clinking of glasses. The most traditional clinking is when all glasses come together at once in the center of the group. When everyone's glass has touched you then take a drink to seal the toast. When a toast is being made between two individuals or in front of a group to the honored guest it is important that the person giving the toast look into the eyes of the person being toasted as their glasses clink together. I know it's difficult but, rather than watch where your glass is heading try looking at the person. The style of toasting, that I like above all others, is that of sending the clink around the table. The presenter makes the toast and then turns to the person at their side and touches their glass. That person then follows by turning to the guest next to them and the clink is passed on from guest to guest until it makes its way back to its origin, and then everyone takes a drink. I rather like to think of toasting as a pleasant form of celebrating conviviality. So raise your glass and just let it kiss the rim of your guest's glasses in celebration of good friends and good wine Cheers and thanks so much for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.