At the recent launch of the Wealth Magazine Business Access TV series, as toasts were being raised to celebrate the event, Managing Director Leighton Davis suggested that I do some research on the origins of this custom that we practise. All over the world people clink glasses of champagne, wine, rum, vodka and other spirits wishing each other good health, “Cheers”, “Salud”, “À votre santé”, “Chin chin”, or “Prost”. But there was a point in our history when this ritual was actually a life or death situation.

History of toasting

There are a number of stories on the beginnings of this custom. One story suggests that toasting originated with the English custom of flavouring wine with a piece of browned and spiced toast. In 1709 Sir Richard Steels wrote of a lady whose name was supposed to flavour a wine like spiced toast. Thus evolved the notion that the individual honoured with a toast would add flavour to the wine.

Another story says that as early as the sixth century BC, the Greeks were toasting to the health of their friends for a highly practical reason, to assure their friends that the wine they were about to drink wasn’t tainted with poison. To spike the wine with poison had become the main way of dealing with social and interpersonal problems – disposing of an enemy or political rival, or to circumvent a messy divorce. Thus, it became a pledge of friendship for the host to pour wine from a common decanter, drink it before his guests, and, satisfied that it was safe, the guests would then raise their glasses and drink.

The custom of touching glasses also evolved from concerns about poisoning. Clinking glasses together would cause each drink to spill over into the others, thus satisfying the guest that the wine was safe. Looking into each other’s eyes was tied to that custom as the thought was that one would not look into the eye of someone they were planning to kill.

Toasting Etiquette

There are a host of rules and guidelines around toasting. Please do your research if you are thinking about raising a toast at any occasion. In some countries the government or the military will have their own formal rules of ceremony and toasting guidelines are a part of it. Here are a few:

• Never drink a toast or stand while it’s being offered to you. However, you should always stand up and respond to the toast, even if this means just thanking the host for the gesture.

• Never should a toast be offered to the guest of honour until the host has had the opportunity to do so. If it appears that the host has no intention of offering a toast, it would be polite to quietly request the host’s indulgence to do so yourself.

• You should always stand when offering a toast unless it is a small informal group. Standing can help you to get the attention of the group and quiet them down. It is best not to signal for quiet by rapping on a glass. You could easily end up with nothing to toast with.

• It is not a good idea to push someone to make a toast who would otherwise prefer not to. You might hear a toast that you would just as soon not hear.

• Never refuse to participate in a toast. It is more polite and perfectly acceptable to participate with a non-alcoholic beverage or even an empty glass than not at all.

When making a toast, be Eloquent, Whimsical, and Witty. Make sure that the toast you are delivering is appropriate to the intended audience and occasion. Be Simple. Keep your toast short and to the point. Avoid using big words. The simplest words often sound the most sincere.

Sample Toasts

• Here’s Champagne to our real friends and real pain to our sham friends.

• To the Land we Love, and the Love we Land!

• May bad fortune follow you all of your days, but never catch up with you!

• I would like to make a toast to lying, stealing, cheating and drinking. If you’re going to lie, lie for a friend. If you’re going to steal, steal a heart. If you’re going to cheat, cheat death. And if you’re going to drink, drink with me.

• May friendships, like wine, improve as time advances. And may we always have old wine, old friends, and young cares.

Typical traditional wedding toasts include the following: (to the couple)

• Here’s to your coffins: may they be made of hundred-yearold oaks; which we shall plant tomorrow.

• May you both live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.

• May the best of your yesterdays be the worst of your tomorrows.

(to the bride)

• May I see you grey, And combing your grandchildren’s hair.

Cheers to Leighton Davis and Garth Walker on their new venture!

Chris Reckord – Entrepreneur & Wine Enthusiast. He and his wife Kerri-Anne are part-owners of Jamaica’s only Wine Bar – Bin26 Wine Bar in Devon House, Kingston. Send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com. Follow us on twitter.com/DeVineWines