Planning An Elegant Wine Tasting Party

Many people want to learn more about wine, but buying a whole bottle of wine without knowing if you will like it can be a pricey proposition. Maybe that is why wine tasting parties are so popular. With a wine tasting party, guests can each bring one bottle of wine and then be able to taste many others.

The Plan

First draw up your guest list. On a nice summer evening, you can invite as many people as will fit in your yard. That guarantees a lot of wine variety and not a big mess if someone spills their drink. Remember to tell your guests to bring their own glasses if you are expecting a big crowd.

If it is a big party, your guests won’t mind if you ask them to bring a bottle of wine.  If you are providing the venue, you probably do not want to provide all the refreshments too. Your guests may be more interested in learning about wine than socializing, keep the guest list to wine enthusiasts. Wine glass charms are a good idea if you have enough glasses or something decorative to wrap around the stems of the glasses so everyone knows their own.

Think of a theme for the wines you want to have at your wine tasting. Select all whites, a mixture of reds and whites, wines for under $20 a bottle, so your guests will know what to bring.

Setting Up The Wine Tasting

A proper wine tasting requires organization. First, get plenty of glasses ready. The correct way is to have a glass for each guest for each wine. That may not be possible with real glass wine glasses but you could always use disposable wine glasses.

Next, a plain saltine cracker is ideal to cleanse the palette between tastings. A wine aftertaste can mask the flavor of another wine.

To make the wine tasting contest even more interesting, disguise each wine’s label so the guests do not know exactly what they are drinking. A plain napkin tied around the neck of each bottle to hide the label. Just mark each one with a number. Provide guests with papers to write their evaluation of each bottle. If you know a real wine snob, imagine his surprise if he gives a $4.99 bottle an excellent rating!