Wine Toasts, as in Cheers! or Salute! ??

[maria lorraine]

What are your favorites? Or ones you've come across in your life or travels? Not only the international toasts -- Nazdorovje, Skol, Cin-Cin -- but other *poetic* ones, like “Rose-lipped maidens, light-foot lads” in the movie “Out of Africa.”

[Strawman]

My favorite is "Skoal".

From Nordic skål, which is related to the English word skull. From the ancient custom of drinking from the skulls of defeated enemies and toasting friends. Something about drinking from the skull of your fallen enemy just appeals to me....

[hooknbounce]

Here's to women who wear red shoes. They love their men and they love their booze. They've lost their cherry, but that's no sin, because they still have the box that it came in.

[Cookiefiend]

...
oh dear...

Very funny - but I'll never be able to keep a straight face when my mom wears hers now.

[hooknbounce]

Not sure of the spelling here, but it is a Russian Toast. "De Strichnia Poda Stalone" The next time we meet will be under the table

[PolarBear]

May you live forever and mine be the last voice you hear.

and

Here's to our health - the slowest rate at which we can die.

[Midlife]

"Salud, Amor y Pesetas..... y el tiempo para gustarlos". I'm not sure it's perfectly correct (the word 'pesetas' could be subbed with 'dinero') or if native Spanish speakers would say it another way. Essentially it means "Health, Love & Money....... and the time to enjoy them!"

[Sam Fujisaka]

See my first reply above.

[jpschust]

How for the simple ones do we not have L'chayim (written in phoetic-ish)- means to life in hebrew

[Bill Hunt]

That one we do have, though it is most often offered up at Passover.

Hunt

[ChefJune]

Here's to those who treat us well,
and those who don't can go to He!!.............

[mojoeater]

My ex-roommate loved the one from Jaws - "Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women!"

[whiner]

I love the Max Bialistock line: wine, women, and song, and women

Zero Mostel delivered it perfectly. Frankly, that is just a perfect movie...

[MaspethMaven]

My brother being a merchant marine, I have heard many a varied and nary a boring toast. My personal favorite, which he and my other brother the stand up comic bestowed was this:

"May your love endure the tests of time and weather.... (brief pause)... to Shackleton!"

Another favorite, and I don't quite recall why, is my husband's insistence on honoring semi-obscure battles. Occasionally, he'll raise a glass to Antietam.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Amor y pesetas, y tiempo para gastarlas: Love and money and time to spend it. A polite version of, "Amor y pesetas y mujeres con grandes tetas".

Banzai, kampei, post my reply!

[RicRios]

Sam, I bet you don't say it in Colombia.

[Sam Fujisaka]

You're right. Here we say, "Salud!" and leave it at that.

[MMRuth]

I learned this from my father, who told me he'd first heard it, in Spanish, in South America in the 1960s. Some variation of the following:

Toast to the Four Hinges of Hell:

May you swear, steal, lie and drink.

When you swear, swear to be true to your friends.

When you steal, steal away from bad companions.

When you lie, lie in the arms of the one you love.

And when you drink, drink with me.

[ambrose]

I often use the German, "Prost". While this is usually associated with drinking beer, it is also used when drinking wine with friends.

BTW, thanks for mentioning the Out of Africa reference. Took me back to my Grade 10 English class where we memorized the A. E. Housman poem from which the quotation comes:

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid,
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

[ajs228]

I had dinner with my friend's Colombian family last night, and they will cheers anything. I must have clinked my bottle of Pacifico 20 times before the night was over. Just a simple "Cheers" whenever you want to celebrate something. It was fun.

[mojoeater]

My Irish Grandmother: May those that love us, love us. For those that don't, may God turn their hearts. If their hearts cannot be turned, may He turn their ankles so we know them by their limping.

[Bill Hunt]

Love it! All I ever say is a simple, "Cheers!" How boring.

Hunt

[justalittlemoreplease]

If I remember correctly, cin-cin is supposed to occur in a circle, Two people clink glasses,
and they must look into each other's eyes when they do, and then the toast goes around the circle and back to the first person.