Hi again everybody, this is Hank Zonner with Grape Zone Wrapped.
Welcome back to my house.
Welcome back to where we first started taping these shoots right here on my staircase.
So it's just about New Year's and I wanted to take some time to talk about what we're
going to drink for New Year's, talk about toasting.
So first before I get launched into that I want to thank you, I want to thank all of
you out there for watching, for participating, for suggesting ideas for us to shoot new videos,
for really supporting us and we hope to bring you more in the upcoming year and hope to
get more of you on board.
So thank you, cheers to you.
And also big thanks to Mike Parris, my producer who's been doing these, they don't happen
without him, I just talk.
So anyway, this is the week probably with the holidays leading up to New Year's where
there's more toasting going on than any other time of year.
So first I want to talk a little bit about, really about the history of toasting.
It's believed that toasting goes back to early ages where you would actually wrap your drink
glass against or gobble against somebody else's just to ensure that your drink wasn't
poisoned in case anything spilled over into the other person's glass, they certainly wouldn't
want to be putting anything that might endanger them into your glass.
There's some other traditions that have come up through the centuries though that really
I think actually make perfect sense.
Germans believe that if you do not make eye contact when you are clinking somebody's glass,
it's seven years of bad sex.
Some people might be satisfied with that, but to me it makes perfect sense.
If you're toasting somebody, if you're greeting them socially, it just makes sense that you
want to take a moment out, make eye contact with them and greet them properly around that
table whether you're celebrating a holiday or some other type of event.
Before we do toast and toast the New Year, let's talk about what I'm drinking.
I love sparkling wine, it's my favorite classification of wines.
I think that they're appropriate for all types of events, all types of drinking, not
just for special occasions and holidays, but it's also a nice way to ring in the New Year.
What I have in front of me here is a grower champagne from Gaston Chicay.
Now, what does grower champagne mean?
Most of those champagne that you know about, those really expensive champagne, they're
well made wines, they're really good, but many of them are mass produced, they're owned
by huge conglomerates, they really are not artisanally produced.
So if that's something that's important to you and I know it is important to a lot of
people, there's been a movement called a grower champagne movement where these are
champagnes that are being made, the grapes are being grown by and the champagne is being
made by the people's names who are on that label, not owned by some luxury goods company.
So this is a champagne from Gaston Chicay, a grower and producer in Champagne.
And I thought it would be a good wine to open up to really take this out, take 2016 out
which a lot of people are looking forward to doing and bringing 2017 in.
So my toast to you is very simply, thank you for sharing in what we're doing this year
and I wish you all the best in 2017.
I wish you all the health and all the happiness and your continued support and sharing what
we're doing.
Cheers to you.
