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Swirlery Brings Together Community and Education Around Wine Tasting
The sun was just beginning to set when I walked into the Swirlery Wine Room. Inside their Michigan Avenue shop, I was met with a long table surrounded by about sixteen wine connoisseurs. Each chair had a wine glass, a cup of water and an empty spitting cup.
Racks of wines available for sale are divided by region, with prices determined by luminescent marker on the bottle. The Swirlery had a warm atmosphere, complemented by the friendly staff and lighting decorations. Halloween decorations were sprinkled around to foster a festive spirit.
Wine Tasting Nights
On Tuesday nights, the shop hosts a blind wine tasting. A group tasting is held at 6 p.m., but the bar is open all night for an individual experience. Every wee, the tasting features three red wines and three whites. The group samples each wine before spending some time analyzing it. Decanters full of the mysterious wines walked around the table, pouring a sampling size into each glass as the group conversed the day’s events.
The tasting started by analyzing the sight and nose [smell] of the wine. “Fresh,” “clean” and “young” were a few of the words thrown out for the first. Everyone patiently listened to others’ analysis, supplementing commentary of their own. Printed sheets helped guide the discussion, volunteering possible descriptors.
When it came to tasting the wine, the group split. A few were puzzled on what they had tasted, while others confidently guessed the wine originated in a new world region. Past that, they hit a roadblock.
Whenever the conversation shifted to the wrong wine, Melissa McAvoy, the shop’s owner was there to shout out clues, engaging in rapid fire discussions, to drift the guests back on course.
“Does anyone get a non-fruit flavor,” McAvoy asked. One of the members offered smoky flavors.
“Why would there be smoke in the wine,” McAvoy shot back as another suggested wildfires. Fifteen seconds later the group had guessed the 2020 Oregon Pinot Noir.
This ever-changing tasting group outdates the Swirlery’s physical location. In 2014, a year before the shop opened, they tasted somewhere new every week. The diverse group ranges in age and were all excited to be there. They had an appreciation for wine and a hunger to learn more.
Enticed yet? McAvoy would love to welcome you to the tasting.
“There’ll never be too many guests, everyone in the community is welcome,” McAvoy said. “We’ll always just pull up another chair at the table.”
McAvoy even said if the Swirlery were ever to get too popular, she’d just open another one!
Each week, the wines for the blind tasting are expertly chosen, usually hailing from one of the classic wine regions in the world. These wines have forever had the same terroir and used the same grapes. Terroir is a wine term used to describe the grapes’ growing conditions. Everything from soil concentration to weather is included in the description. The consistency in these wines’ production has almost always led to an almost identical taste.
A lot of the frequent attendees work in the hospitality industry and a few are working towards Sommelier Certification. Because of this, tasters can also expect to find wines that are frequently tested towards this certification on the tasting menu. Many of these are those from the classic regions.
Outside of the blind tasting nights, The Swirlery Wine Room is open for anyone to come and taste new wines. In it’s seven years, it has helped developed SODO’s wine community.
Getting to know Melissa McAvoy
McAvoy, the shop’s owner, moved to Orlando 25 years ago to study horticulture and business at Valencia and eventually UCF. She started working for Disney a few years after. She occasionally still works for the company today as a server at Citricos. She learned a lot about hospitality from Disney.
Disney taught me how to take care of guests and make each one feel special and welcomed
McAvoy loves the community around her restaurant. The Swirlery has been in SODO since opening. According to McAvoy, everyone has been very receptive to the shop and they’ve both grown together. She also claims responsibility for expanding her neighbors’ palettes.
Together, they’ve been able to create a place for people who love wine. A place where people can “slow down and appreciate what’s in the glass,” as McAvoy said. She wants people to use their senses and discover what they’re drinking.
“When we first opened, the area didn’t have any wine bars,” she said. The Swirlery has helped grow the community closer and continues to do so. Including the blind tasting, the bar offers at least three events every week.
The Orlando Life
The Orlando Life for McAvoy is one full of diversity. She’s stayed in the city because it is full of kind people and is very clean. She also loves how it’s home to anything you could want, just like bigger cities around the country.
“You might have to search harder than you would in a place like New York,” McAvoy said. “But you can find anything if you look!”
