# Direction of wine swirling. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055 "2011-08-01T15:43:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/1 "2011-08-01T15:43:28Z")
I call large piles of steaming BS on this theory that the direction you swirl the wine in makes a difference to it’s aroma. Or am I wrong? Anyone care to support this theory? [http://www.amicistours.com/WineSwirling.html](http://www.amicistours.com/WineSwirling.html) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/2 "2011-08-01T15:54:27Z")
Total bullshit. When the article said “magnetic…” whatever it was proof the author knows nothing of science or wine. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/3 "2011-08-01T15:57:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Like all living things wine cells have a magnetic polarity, just like humans and the Earth. The positive pole is more highly charged, just like the North Pole of the Earth, which is why there are Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle, but not Southern Lights in the Antarctic. This polarity tends to keep wine cells generally upright, spinning on their axis when they are being swirled. This magnetic action within a liquid is commonly demonstrated in laboratories. Because wine cells are mostly liquid, when they form they are also subject to the electromagnetic forces that are a component of the rotation of the Earth. As a result, the pores on the surface of the cell develop based on that rotation, like the shingles on a roof. Buullll. The fuck is a “wine cell”? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/4 "2011-08-01T15:58:28Z")
I have a real hard time believing someone’s nose could be that sensitive. Mebbe if there were a rigorous scientific study rather than people on twitter, I’ll go along with it. But frankly, if it makes oenophiles happy, I don’t feel any need to tell the emperor he has no clothes. And of course, here’s an eqully valid cite saying [There’s no difference.](http://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/5175) My advice, decide which direction you like better and if anyone gives you guff, tell them you prefer it that way. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/5 "2011-08-01T16:17:14Z")
> [@](#): > > The positive pole is more highly charged, just like the North Pole of the Earth, which is why there are Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle, but not Southern Lights in the Antarctic. [Aurora Australis](http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/weather/aurora.shtml). ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/6 "2011-08-01T16:20:57Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > [Aurora Australis](http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/weather/aurora.shtml). Yeah, if you were inclined you could find citations disproving every phrase in that steaming pile. But that’d take a lot more effort than this bull deserves. This particular bit of woo, at least, won’t cause harm beyond addling a few gullible oenophiles. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/7 "2011-08-01T16:46:19Z")
Sounds suspiciously like BS to me. Having worked in the viticulture field for some years, and having been around some very knowledgable winemakers and judges, I’ve never even heard it suggested that the direction of swirl makes an iota of difference in flavor release. What does make a difference however, is the manner in which the wine is swirled. In a sealed bottle of wine, the various flavinoids in the wine are imprisoned in an airless atmosphere. When exposed to air, they volatize and are released into the wine and the ambient air in the glass. “Swirling” causes aeration of the wine, and it is actually better to “jostle” the glass rather than swirling the wine smoothely as this exposes it to more air. One winemaker explained it to me as an “instant aging”. As an aside, too much oxidation of wine is a bad thing. This is what often happens to a cellared bottle when a cork fails. The wine becomes over-oxidized, the flavinoid compounds volatize long before being consumed, and what is left is wine with what I’d call a paint taste…a sharp acrid chemical flavor that pretty much ruins a bottle. Wine judging, like art criticism has been demeaned by the tendency of too many critics to launch into a bunch of airy, asinine verbage and pseudo-magic that really doesn’t mean much. SS ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/8 "2011-08-01T17:24:18Z")
Right handers can probably swirl a wine glass in an anticlockwise direction with less sloshing than clockwise, with the reverse being true for sinister southpaws but the magnetic argument is bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![kaltkalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@kaltkalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaltkalt)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/9 "2011-08-01T17:26:54Z")
Total bullshit. Anyone who says they sense a difference is lying or has fallen for a sort of placebo affect. They’re the type of people who would say McDonalds chicken mcnuggets taste amazing and are SO much better than McDonald’s chicken mcnuggets because you serve it to them in a fancy setting and tell them they were prepared by a famous french chef. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/10 "2011-08-01T17:29:57Z")
Well, the owners of the site have the expertise: > [@](#): > > They have consulted and lectured together internationally since the mid 1990’s and their arrival in wine country was a funny combination of luck and love. Truthfully, many of the top tour guides (their friends) in Napa and Sonoma come from interesting back grounds, it is a field that requires flexibility, depth, patience and a huge sense of humor. Ralph & Lahni have that in spades. [http://www.amicistours.com/aboutus.html](http://www.amicistours.com/aboutus.html) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/11 "2011-08-01T17:30:39Z")
It is possible that a right-handed person might get a better swirl in one direction than another. But of course, a left-handed person would get better results the other way. And the explanation given in that link is a true work of art, as pseudoscience goes. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/12 "2011-08-01T18:00:29Z")
If the earth’s magnetic field is involved, then swirling would be better in the other direction in the southern hemisphere. I’m happy to visit vineyards in Australia to check out if this is true, provided someone finances my very moderate expenses. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/13 "2011-08-01T18:37:40Z")
I just tried dunking a fridge magnet in a glassful of 1982 Chateau Petrus. I don’t think it improved the flavour ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/14 "2011-08-01T18:59:30Z")
Yes, it’s total BS. You need to swirl to the left for wines from the Northern Hemisphere (California, France), to the right for wines from the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, South Africa). For wines from equatorial regions, you actually need to turn the glass on its side so you can have a completely vertical swirl. Luckily, no wines are made at the poles, because you’d need an ultra-centrifuge for proper appreciation. HOWEVER, if the barrels were grown in a different hemisphere than the wine (Australian winery with barrels from Spain, for instance), then you need a complicated counter-swirl pattern. I’ve actually found that I get best results when I also account for the birthplace of the winemaker (northern or southern hemisphere), and whether they’re right- or left-handed, but I’m sure that’s too complicated for most people who don’t really care about wine and couldn’t tell the difference anyway. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/15 "2011-08-01T19:13:38Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > Buullll. The fuck is a “wine cell”? They may just believe that everything is made up of cells. Or, I have heard some of these people talk about “cells” or “clusters” in water, with the usual explanation being that water attracts itself (evidenced by surface tension) and this attraction may be too strong for you to actually absorb the water. Magnets are supposed to line everything up so that these cells/clusters are easier to absorb. For example, [this link](http://www.decluster.com/science.htm) makes the following statement: > [@](#): > > Magnets affect the bonding angle between the hydrogen and the oxygen atom in the water molecule. Magnetized water causes the hydrogen-oxygen bond angle within the water molecule to be reduced from 104 to 103 degrees. This in turn causes the water molecule to cluster together in groups of 6-7 rather than groupings of 10-12 and higher. The smaller cluster leads to better absorption of water across cell walls. Dr. Michael Lam, MD in his study on magnetized water, reports that there have been numerous reports from those drinking magnetized water on a daily basis of people being cured of many chronic degenerative disease such as renal stones and arthritis. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/16 "2011-08-01T20:19:27Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > For example, [this link](http://www.decluster.com/science.htm) makes the following statement: Except that this is 100% fake, in every conceivable way. Water is diamagnetic, meaning that if you let it, it is actually slightly repelled by magnets. Furthermore, it does not have the ability to remain magnetized, so when you remove the magnet, it quickly reverts to its original state. But this product is very good at attracting money from wallets. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/17 "2011-08-01T20:23:01Z")
Never mind. I hadn’t read all of the link, and I realize that it would take way more effort than it’s worth to deal with all of that pseudoscience. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/18 "2011-08-01T20:49:44Z")
What a steaming pile of horseshit. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/19 "2011-08-01T22:03:13Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > You need to swirl to the left for wines from the Northern Hemisphere (California, France), to the right for wines from the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, South Africa… Dear **Quercus** , I read your wine column about correct swirling direction with great interest but am still conused about which way I should swirl when drinking French wines (Northern Hemisphere) while in New Zealand (Southern Hemisphere). I did try inverting the glass and swirling to the left but the wine all fell out. Please help. - Antipodean Oenophile 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055/20 "2011-08-01T22:05:38Z")
Thanks all. It is nice to know my bullshit radar is still properly aligned. I kind of knew it was really but thought I’d get some interesting answers and indeed I did. The sloshing thing is an especially good point. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/direction-of-wine-swirling/591055.md?page=2)