BeyondGourmet.com, wine advice, Gourmet Baskets, Gift Basket and San Francisco, wind information, Ice wine, gourmet food, gifts

So ....You Want to Host a Wine Tasting?

By Steve Mancuso, The Wine Snob

Hosting a wine tasting is a fun theme for hours of entertaining and a great way to learn more about wine. The more tastings you have, the more you will learn and the better you will get at hosting!

There are several approaches you can take, and it would require writing a book in order to describe in detail each type and the numerous variations. Rather, I will list a few themes and a general approach that can be adapted to fit your personal preferences. Your first time as host will be a learning experience, and as you host subsequent tastings you will develop your own style that works for you and your guests. Here are a few common themes:

Varietal Specific - Each wine is of the same varietal, for instance Merlot and perhaps of same (horizontal) or different vintages. A fun tasting for outdoors in late spring/early summer is a "newly released" Chardonnay tasting. This is a great outdoor event on the deck accompanied by savory finger foods like grilled shrimp, scallops wrapped in bacon, smoked mozzarella wrapped with roasted pepper etc..

Region - Each wine may be from the same country or perhaps the same valley. You may want to pick a region you know little about. A popular tasting of this type is Italian wines.

Potluck - This is a great way for the neophyte to get exposure to new wines. Ask each of your guests to go to their local wine dealer (or personal cellar) and pick out a bottle of wine they have been yearning to try or one that has been highly recommended (perhaps by the wine dealer). Tell each guest to do some homework on the wine they are bringing and be prepared to speak about their wine at the tasting. You may want to provide a little guidance with a few required topics to address (i.e., Grape varietal, year, region, something about the producer). You may be pleasantly surprised to see some of your guests arrive at your door with library books and note cards! This type of tasting can be perhaps the most fun to host, but it can be a challenge from a food preparation perspective (if hosting dinner to coincide). This challenge can be avoided if some or most of your guests can provide you advance notice of appropriate food pairings for the wine they plan to share.

Vertical - Vertical wine tastings are most commonly the same wine of several consecutive years. I recently held a Caymus Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon tasting for the years 1987 through 1994. This is obviously a more difficult tasting to host unless you are a collector of specific wines, and certainly it can be rather expensive (choose your guests wisely!)

The above themes are simply foundation ideas. There are several twists and variations one can apply to make a wine tasting more fun and enhance the learning or objectivity of the experience. Blind tastings are always fun especially when having a varietal specific tasting. Blind tastings commonly involve the identification of a favorite wine and therefore a great deal of "back and forth" tasting and comparison is required. The host may want to have a few cases of wineglasses to accommodate the final stages of the "favorite" selection!

A simple way to accommodate this challenge is to serve the wines in "flights" of two - simply serve two wines at a time and ask the tasters to pick their favorite out of each flight. This narrows the "back and forth" tasting to half of the wines served and your guests will be able to find their favorite in a tournament-like style. Blind tastings require creative techniques in concealing the wine and the marking/numbering of each bottle.

After you have decided your theme, you next need to determine the logistics.

1. Determine the number of guests (a manageable/popular number is 8)
2. Extend invitations
3. Emphasize FIRM commitment
4. If possible, try to invite one guest who is knowledgeable about wine. Otherwise, the host should do some homework at the library in order to share some interesting wine facts!
5. Another variation is to ask your guests to bring a wine fact. Throughout the course of the tasting, a guest is asked to share their fact in the form of "did you know" or "can anyone answer the following". The idea is to create an interactive environment to enhance the tasting experience. It's all about sharing! The host may want to provide door prizes for guests that share fun and interesting facts. Door prizes need not be elaborate and can simply include corkscrews, wine savers, pourers, etc..!
6. Have enough glasses (same or similar type) that are large enough for swirling and robust sniffing!
7. A group of 8 can taste eight to ten bottles of wine in flights of 2 to 4.
8. Covering the table in white provides for greater color assessment.
9. Palate cleansers and food " This is a critical necessity and the variations are endless. Some professionals like to sample the wines before dinner then have dinner with the wine they prefer. Others, like the Wine Snob, may prefer to serve small amounts of the same foods throughout the event, so each flight has the same accompaniments and the tasting extends over a period of a few hours and dinner is achieved concurrently. If taking the route of the latter, simple crackers and fresh mozzarella work very well.
10. Be sure to have plenty of fresh water for drinking and rinsing.
11. Have a spittoon or two for those who choose to spit and to serve as a receptacle to empty the rinsing water.
12. Lastly have notepads/paper and pens available. I have found that pre-printed forms work very well and help guide the taster through the process. Recommendations for the form are merely: Color, Nose, Flavor, and comments. For blind tastings, numbering becomes critical on the note sheets.

The hardest part of any wine tasting is the start. For first timers it can appear pretentious with the formal glasses and the white tablecloth. The host will need to set every one at ease and explain the purpose is to have fun and learn simultaneously. Once the guests are relaxed briefly explain the tasting process. For example, your opening remarks might be:

"Hey guys, thanks for coming. We want to have fun tonight and at the end of the night we will probably know one more thing about wine then when we started. If nothing else, we'll have fun! I thought a good way to run this would be to taste 2 wines at a time, besides, that's all the glasses I could round up. We'll each have two glasses so we'll pour a small amount of the first two wines and move on 2 at a time. I've provided notes-sheets that guide us in how to taste and help us remember what we thought of each wine. As you'll see on the notes-sheets, we'll first examine the color, then swirl the wine; take a robust sniff and finally taste. Whatever you see smell or taste, write it down, share it with each other and feel free to banter. You'd be surprised to find out what you'll smell and taste after someone makes the suggestion."

After your opening remarks, sit everyone down and pour approximately 1.5 to 2 ounces of wine in each glass. (NOTE: you may want to experiment with water in order to identify the "pour" measurement before your guests arrive). Provided you pour a consistent amount, this is plenty of wine for three to four sips and provides a good deal of wine left in the bottle for later comparison or perhaps with dinner, whatever sequence or agenda you desire. Allow everyone to look smell and taste at their own pace and encourage dialogue. Wait until everyone is finished tasting and sharing their thoughts with the first flight before proceeding with the second flight of wines. Encourage people to take good notes by sincerely asking what they wrote. When everyone is ready move on to the next flight, suggest that each person rinse his or her glass and drink some water. If you are serving food, assure everyone's plate is replenished. Again, repeat the process. Needless to say, the dialogue will increase with each flight! Without being too controlling try to stick to the process and note taking or you may feel cheated the next morning!

If hosting a potluck tasting, you'll want to direct the order of the tasting from dry lighter body to dry full body and then sweet. Also, there is no need to provide same food all the way through for comparison as the food can then follow the traditional course of appetizer to main to dessert. In this scenario you want to map the food to each wine. One wine at a time is probably the best route to take in potluck, as the guest bringing the wine should not feel compelled to share the floor nor do you want to suggest a competitive environment.

On the other hand, if you are hosting a varietal tasting (especially blind), the next step is to proceed to phase two! When all the wines have been tasted once, ask each guest to review their notes and select their favorite from each flight. After everyone has selected their flight winners, begin with a winner flight specific to each guest based upon their selection. This process is almost like a tournament style for each guest as they reach their favorite

Feel free to have your guests rank the wines in the order they enjoyed them and tally the results for an overall winner.

Final hints: Conceal price until the end of the night. First time wine tastings may want to provide examples of wine descriptors:

Color -amber, clear, cloudy, deep ruby, brown at rim etc..

Nose -sweet, fruity, musty, Fresh cut grass, etc..

Flavors -crisp, light, full, smooth, balanced, oak, tight, alcoholic, etc..

Persistence on the palate (finish) - long Taste with food and identify the change from alone to when paired with food

Consult and compare notes - feel free to try to convince people in a fun manner Identify both the likes and the dislikes as this will help identify the preference of your personal palate Vote to pick a favorite

Most of all have fun!

Back to the Top