With party season here, some tips for toasting

Nothing establishes your reputation as a very important guest, or host or hostess with the mostest, like a well-spoken toast.

The term "toast" originated in merry old England, in days of auld lang syne (long ago). Before modern winemaking refinements, a slice of toast was tossed into the wine goblet to filter and sop up solid matter -- an errant twig perhaps, or random rodent part. Draining your goblet in another's praise meant eating the wine soaked bread -- "drinking a toast."

"The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette" provides detailed instruction on toasting but the basic procedure is simple:

• Well in advance, prepare, write down and practice (I repeat, practice) a brief message (I repeat, brief) of thanks, congratulations and/or downright flattery for the recipient of your toast.

• If the occasion is dinner, wait until the main course is complete; for casual gatherings, plan your toast about an hour into the festivities.

• As the moment approaches, be certain there's liquid in your glass, run over your notes and take a deep breath. Gently rap your wineglass with an unused utensil; it helps to have cohorts a-ready to quiet the throng.

• As all eyes turn to you, take another deep breath, stand, face the toastee and speak. When the toast is complete, hold your glass aloft, address the company at large with a few final words such as "God bless us everyone!" and sip (I repeat sip.) Sit, breathe, bask in the admiration of family and friends.

Original comments are appreciated, but if Mother Wit is on vacation, rely on the great toasts of the ages.

Are you the host or hostess? "By the bread and the salt, by the water and wine/ Thou art welcome, my friend, at this board of mine." (Anonymous)

The guest? "Let us raise up our glasses and make this fair toast: short life to our liquor, long life to our host." (Anonymous)

Toasting lawyers? "Say it with jewelry, say it with drink, but always be careful not to say it in ink." (Anonymous)

Are you drinking to a new friendship? "May our friendship, like our wine, improve as time advances." (Anonymous)

Or to long-standing friends? "Here's to a friend. He knows you well … And likes you just the same!" (Anonymous)

Is the event a cast of thousands? "May I never lack wine or friends to help me drink it." (French proverb)

Or a tete-a-tete? "In water, one sees one's own face. In wine, one beholds the heart of another." (Anonymous)

Is the guest of honor an overseas visitor? "Water separates the people of the world. Wine unites them." (Anonymous)

Or from a few doors down? "God in His goodness sent the grape to cheer both great and small. Little fools will drink too much and great fools, none at all." (Anonymous)

Wine itself has inspired toasts:

"Here's to Champagne, the drink divine, that helps us forget all our troubles. It's made of a dollar's worth of wine and three dollar's worth of bubbles." (Anonymous)

And so have holidays:

"I know I've wished you this before, but every year I wish it more. A Merry Christmas." (Anonymous)

You might employ a traditional phrase:

"Let's drink to the days that we love to recall, and pledge in this good wine. Let's drink to the days that were best of all, the days of Auld Lang Syne." (Robert Burns, Scottish poet)

Or modern-day wisdom: "Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right." (Oprah Winfrey)

And finally, the quotation that inspired the title of this column and my toast there from:

"As Ben Franklin said, 'Good wine is proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy.' So good wine and good health to us all !"

© 2007

Ross choice

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