A Wine Tasting Party

Having a wine tasting party is a great way to gather all your friends in one place to have fun with an activity that is becoming more and more popular. The tasting of wine is something done both for enjoyment and also as a profession. Whether you do it purely for enjoyment or whether you are a professional wine taster, the learning opportunities help to make it even more enjoyable. There are many people who will choose to go to a wine tasting course, class or event prior to having their own wine tasting party so that they know enough about it.

An important thing to know when you are having a wine tasting party, is the order in which the wines are tasted. With the whites make sure that the dry whites are tasted first and then graduate to the sweeter ones. With the reds, make sure that the lighter wines are tasted first and then move to the heavier ones. Also it is a good idea to begin with newer wines at the beginning of the party and get to the more mature wines during the course of your wine tasting party. Make sure that the amounts given to the guests are no more than approximately two ounces in each glass, this ensures they get to enjoy the whole party.

Party Planning

When you decide to have the party, the first thing that needs to be considered is the type of tasting that will be occurring. There are actually quite a few categories of wine tasting, it can even be coupled with cheeses, other variations of tasting include vertical tasting and horizontal tasting. There are other types that include things such as chocolate, tasting based on the price and of course comparing older wines to new ones. Prior to choosing what type of wine tasting party you are going to have, make sure that you take the sort of people that will be your guest at the party. The next thing to do is to get enough note-cards for every guest, this allows them to record their thoughts for each of the wines they taste. These cards can be pre-filled with the various details on each of the wines, or you can provide blank ones for the guests to fill in themselves

To ensure that your party is a success, make the effort to get a bit creative with it. A great way of doing that is to introduce tasting games into the mix. There are several that you could use for such an occasion. There are even commercial wine tasting party games that you can buy online. One such game is to have a "blind" tasting. Normally this means to remove the labels from the bottles and then perform what is essentially a guessing game. You can spice this up by making it more literally "blind" by using blindfolds as well. Then the person who has the most correct guesses can be awarded a prize. Another great idea is to have a "wine trivia" game, a bit like trivial pursuit, but with the questions all related to wine. The possibilities are endless.

The last thing to remember is that you can theme the wine tasting party, perhaps making it a very sophisticated event. This allows you to decorate the venue accordingly and the ladies get to dress up.