A Wine Tasting Party is an ideal way to get friends and family together to learn about wine and experiment with new or unusual varieties.  It can help to break the ice and give your partygoers some great conversation down the line.  There are a couple of different styles of parties you can throw: 

• A Vertical Tasting consists of tasting wines from several different vintages or years, that were produced by one winery. A nice example of this would be tasting Cabernet Sauvignon from Clos Du Bois spanning the “90”, “91”, “92”, and “93” vintages. This would let the tasters see how each vintage compared to the next and also judge the aging process.

• A Horizontal Tasting consists of tasting wines from the same vintage or year, represented by several different wineries. A nice example of this would be tasting Cabernet Sauvignon from Joseph Phelps, St. Francis, Chateau Souverain, and Robert Mondavi all from the “1990” vintage.

When hosting these parties try to have enough wine for approximately 1 ½ ounces per tasting sample (1 bottle usually serves 10 tasting samples) and a few extra bottles for drinking after the tasting is finished. People usually like to further enjoy the wines they just tasted.

Providing simple hors d’oeuvres for the guests between wines allows them to cleanse their pallets and sets them up to fully experience the next wine. You also want to limit the chances of your guests over-indulging and driving home intoxicated. Some good choices are mild cheese and crackers, bread, oyster crackers, popcorn (very nice with champagne), and nuts. If you are feeling a little fancier you can also try some smoked meats, mild chocolate, or fondue.

Typically, when tasting wines, you will want to work from dry to sweet with white wines and progress from light to full-bodied with red wines. Have your guests sample each wine by itself, assessing the wine’s unique color, smells, flavors and then introduce the appropriate cheese pairing and have them reassess the wine’s qualities in light of the subtle flavor changes.

Some tips and things to have on-hand at your wine tasting party are:

• Bottled water or pitchers of water - room temperature bottled water is best. .

• Wine Opener and possible a spare so that you can have a friend help you open all these bottles of wine.

• Spit Buckets - Some guests will spit a bit since they are tasting so much wine. Let everyone know ahead of time that it is very okay and common at a wine tasting event to spit!

• Pens and Tasting Note Sheets or Scorecards - Lots of people will want to take these home with them so that they can remember the great wines they tried.

• A Wine Place Mat for each taster (contains a pattern for placement of wineglasses).

• Wine Glasses - A 12oz. (or bigger) glass for everyone.