Mary Killen Mary Killen

Dear Mary… | 29 April 2006

Etiquette advice from The Spectator's Miss Manners

issue 29 April 2006

Q. I think I can offer you a solution to a problem which may plague others who spend intimate time with oenophiles and are driven to distraction by slurping. My brother is a mad wine-lover. He slurps his wine noisily. He is a physicist, and seems to be keen to prove that he can defy the laws of gravity by causing liquids to travel upwards rather than downwards. I have managed to persuade him of what I think is perfectly true: that in the case of an older vintage, one tottering on its last legs, the fact is that if it is slurped, the oxygenation caused by the slurping causes the delicate wine to lose its last grasp on life. Whereas, when sipped with great delicacy and minimal intake of air, as normal people drink anything, a great deal more of the wine’s flavour comes through.

B.T., California

A. Thank you for this tip.

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