Throw a wine tasting party...here is how

Throw a wine tasting party…here is how

A wine tasting party is great for socializing, discovering new wines and gaining some new favorites thru fun experimentation. This type of party is one of the easiest theme party’s to hold since its focus is on the wine.  Throwing a wine tasting party isn’t drudgery like hosting can sometimes turn out to be, while you are working hard you miss out on your own party, this is pretty much a guarantee good time for everyone.

A successful party of any kind comes from the preparation ahead of time so you will first need to decide on a theme. Here are some ideas:

Blind taste testing; cover the bottle with brown bag, wine bags, wrapping paper or colored 
tissue. 

Vertical tasting; you taste the same variety of wine from same producer

 but different years

Theme tasting; wines can all be white or all red, the same grape such as a Pinot, same region or by price point 

Region tasting; you can have wine from same region which you have trivia question and answer game testing everyone’s knowledge of that region and have prize for winner or no prizes just for good laughs

Horizontal tasting; you select a year and the wine variety from different producers

Variety tasting; wines can be all the same variety but from different regions, this is fun to do blind so that your pallet can determine the growing region,

Bring a bottle and pairing, each brings a bottle that has a price within a determined price point each bring a bottle of wine and appetizer that pairs with it.  Epicurious website is great help to find recipes, they have wine suggests with most of their recipes. 

Guests are designated to bring a bottle of wine to go with a dinner course. Start with a sparkling end with dessert or ice wine

Wine exchange; you can make some guidelines like all red, all whites, dollar limit or have it open. Each guest brings two bottles of the same wine, set aside one, open the other for tasting.  Write everyone’s name on a slip of paper and put in a bowl, host selects a name that person selects a bottle they want and the same with the second person or they can steal from the prior person.

Keep the guest list for your party to max 10 people which will allow for good interaction. You should provide note cards with the wine information if you are supplying the wine, then your guest can make notes which they can keep for future reference. When picking the progression you always want to taste dry to-sweet with white wines and light to full body for reds. When buying the wine for your party makes sure you buy enough for the tasting, usually you will pour about 1 ounce for the initial tasting and then have more wine to follow. 

Hosting a Wine tasting party is a fun way to get together with other wine lovers and it can also be great time for someone new to wine. 

For the more wine tips that you should review go to the WLW tips tab at top of our main web page. 

Get one started now…they are so much fun. Cheers..Denise