Individual teaching styles vary. Mr. Zona, a former New York City headhunter who began Swirl Wine Events in 2006, approaches wine “from a fun place.”
“It’s part of the social fabric, and I try to put that across,” he said. To that end, Mr. Zona, who will begin a series of wine classes at Above Restaurant and Bar in South Orange next month, hosted an impromptu Girl Scout cookie and wine pairing at Arturo’s Osteria and Pizzeria in Maplewood last year.
“It was just six boxes of Girl Scout cookies and six bottles of wine,” Mr. Zona said. “Whoever was at the restaurant and wanted to join us came and sat with us.” He adds novelty to his public and private events — he does around four a month in New Jersey and New York, he said — in less whimsical ways, too, like making trips to Ferry Street in Newark to find unusual Portuguese, Spanish and South American wines.
