Do you give good swirl? Clockwise or vice versa? In the air? On the table?
I am happy to hear it, because giving your wine a whirl will aerate it, releasing its vapors and allowing you to smell more things in it. You may detect aromas of fruit or flowers or spice or perhaps more exotic things like baked bread or minerals; almost anything is fair game when appreciating a wine’s aromas, collectively known to tasters as its “nose.”
While this taster’s twitch is so fundamental to wine appreciation that it is generally taught in the first minutes of Wine 101, the problem comes when drinkers become lost to the swirl.
What starts as a legitimate technique to aerate the wine can devolve into any number of elliptical transgressions. Some swirl too aggressively, orbiting their wine like some frenzied act of self-gratification. Others operate their glass with unfortunate hauteur in a desperate attempt at identifying themselves with some imaginary society of pinkie lifters.
Then there are those who focus so much on their swirl that it alienates those around them, not unlike a tablemate obsessed with their smartphone. A person can become so addicted to the swirl that they absentmindedly swirl everything on the table—their water glass, the flower vase, or the votive candle.
Whatever the occasion, it is best to give your wine a quick, crisp swirl, take a few deliberate inhalations, and then taste it. You will get a good read of the wine without shedding friends and infuriating people.