party ideas

Plan your next event around a wine tasting party

What better way to kick off the evening with a group of friends than with a wine tasting party. Sure, it can seem a bit intimidating if you're not familiar with all the terms such as appellation or varietals, but putting together such a tasting event can be quite simple. All you need to do is start with a theme and build from there. For example, if you are interested in comparing inexpensive, mid-range and higher end chardonnays from a certain region or country, you may try a blind taste test by serving the wines covered or in bags (so no one is swayed by a fancy label). Or ask everyone to bring a bottle of red under $15. Or pit different winemakers from the same region, making the same wine and at the same price, against each other. Your local wine store or wine bar will probably have some good recommendations and ideas. Be sure to check with your friends. They might have a suggestion for a wine or winemaker they've been wanting to try.

What you'll need:

6 to 10 willing guests
A table to display the wines
A dump bucket
Corkscrew
A white table cloth
Some paper and pens
Wineglasses
Cheese and crackers and bread
Fruit such as pears and melons.
Glasses of water

If your theme for the night involves several varietals, start with the lightest wines first, for example Champagne, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer. Then move on to the more full-bodied wines such as Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet and Zinfandel. Last on the list are the dessert wines.

The cheese, crackers, bread and fruit are for cleaning the palate in between tastings. Guests may also want to take a sip of water. Offer a dump bucket as some people may want to tip out the reminder of the pour as well as spit and not swallow what they've tasted, especially if you are tasting quite a few different bottles.

Begin tasting

Pour about a 1 to 2 ounce serving, per person, per tasting. This means one bottle of wine will serve about 10 people. Take a look at the wine but holding up in the air and then against the white table cloth. Is it clear? Light? A deep red color? Have everyone swirl the wine around in their glass and smell the fragrance. What comes to mind? Berries? Chocolate? Oak? And now a taste. How is the texture? Smooth? Is it acidic? What about the taste? Citrus? Peppery? Spicy? Chocolate? Cherry? As many people as there are at your tasting is most likely how many different opinions you'll get on the taste and smell of each wine. Sometimes someone will point out a taste or a smell in the wine that you'd noticed but hadn't been able to give a name to. Give everyone time to take a few notes for themselves. If you know the wines you're serving before hand and it's not a blind taste test you may consider putting together a list for everyone with the name and vintage of each wine for future reference. And, if you plan to do this again at a later date, you'll have a reference of the last tasting.

Get everyone to rate each wine. In the end you'll most likely have an overwhelming favorite wine of the evening as well as a few dogs that no one liked. At this point in the evening it's time to start serving the appetizers before everyone gets too tipsy. Or sit down and enjoy the wines with dinner. Whatever you decide, have fun. You'll be probably be surprised how much you've learned about wine in just one evening and everyone will leaving saying, "We'll have to do that again, sometime soon."

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