If you thought adding wine you a regular glass was the oddest thing you’ve done to wine, you’ve got nothing over the people who’ve drank wine out of a shoe!
Red or white, each bottle of wine packs a bunch of flavors and aromas, and any true wine connoisseur will make it a habit to try as many blends as possible. However, a true wine connoisseur will also try to know as much about wine itself.
What better way to start adding to your wine knowledge than knowing about different, and weird, ways people drink wine around the world.
Who knows, you may even want to try one of these at your own wine party at home!
Georgia: Extreme toasting
A couple or more toasts with wine at your weekend family meal are normal enough. How about a meal with more than 20 wine toasts? Because that is exactly what you will find in Georgia!
If you’re fortunate enough to travel to Georgia, dare to attend an authentic supra (feast), which will consist of numerous toasts, with wine the primary choice of beverage.
Japan: Wine on the rocks
Let’s a take a few seconds till the more serious wine lovers amongst you get over your anger, because Japan is adding ice cubes to wine!
Maybe these Japanese wine drinkers are downright crazy, or maybe they’re just miles ahead in wine-drinking than the rest of us. We’ll leave that decision to you.
Europe: Of wines and colas
Speaking of wine offenses, the ice-and-wine loving Japanese appear tame in comparison to some Europeans, who have developed an appreciation for wine mixed with…cola!
Surprisingly, this trend is a popular one in France, a country known for global ranking in wine-making.
In addition to France, you’ll also find people mixing wine with cola in Spain, the Basque Country in particular.
Spain: Tossing tannins
If you’ve ever wanted to douse people in wine and not get in trouble for it, now’s your chance! This June 29th, head to the Haro Wine Festival held in the northern Spanish town of La Rioja, where you can throw wine at people to your heart’s content. And don’t worry about offending anyone—it’s all for celebration!
Ukraine: Fill up the shoe
We’ve saved the best for last. In Ukraine, a popular wedding tradition involves pranking the bride by stealing one of her shoes. If successful, the thief can make some light-hearted demands from the guests, the most common one amongst which is the being able to drink wine from the stolen shoe!
Nowadays, the trend is a tad less gross, as a glass is usually strapped to the shoe for thief to drink the wine from, but the act does involve bringing the shoe near the face, so we’ll still list this tradition as a weird one.
While love this interesting mix of wine habits, don’t worry. We’ll stick to using wine glasses on your wine tasting tour to Santa Ynez Valley.
Book a guided group tour with us today!