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Wine Tasting Parties

In its very simplest form, a wine tasting party is nothing more than a couple of friends getting together tasting a bottle of wine they have not tried before. And that kind of party can be one of the most fun of all. However, when people are thinking about a wine tasting party, they are usually thinking of something a little more formal.

Wine Tasting Club

What are the benefits of a wine tasting club?

• Get together with friends on a regular basis
• You don't have to pay for all of the wine yourself
• Rotate locations so you are not the only one hosting a gathering
• Home wine tasting is much cheaper than wine room tasting
• You could hold a wine tasting class
• Learn wine tasting terms in a friendly environment by using a Wine Tasting Guide

Wine Tasting Party Ideas

For a more formal wine tasting party, you may want to start by sending out some wine tasting invitations. Again, there are no standards, you can go from simple blank wine invitations, to something more elaborate that you've picked up at the stationery store, or you can even pick up entire wine tasting kits . Whatever you do, don't forget the wine bottle opener!

Some tips to make your wine tasting party great!

• Get to know your local wine shop, so they can help you choose some great wines that will fit your taste and budget
• Use a Theme.  You could go with a certain region,such as Napa Valley, or a certain varietal, such as Cabernet Sauvignon.
• Use appropriate stemware.  Use wine glasses with large bowls for red wine, and a more contained slimmer glass for white white wine.  And use a flute for champagne.  And remember to protect your wine glasses.
• Serve each wine at the proper temperature.  Red wine should be served at room temperature and it should be decanted about an hour before drinking.  White wine should be served chilled, but not too chilled.  Take it out of the fridge about 1/2 hour before serving.  And champagne should be served ice cold!
• Finally, to make sure your guests do not wake up the following morning with a wine headache, make sure you have plenty of water on hand to keep them hydrated.

 

Wine Tasting holidays

The major wine tasting Holidays are:

• Memorial Day Weekend
• Thanksgiving Day Weekend

Other holidays are good for a wine party too, but those are the two major ones.  Memorial Day weekend is the starting wine tasting holiday and Thanksgiving is the ending wine tasting holiday.  The Memorial Day weekend is typically when the new release of a vintage will be released.  For example, in 2010, the 2008 vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon wine was released after two years of aging.  The thanksgiving weekend is the last big wine tasting holiday of the year because wineries are going into the slow winter months.

 

Wine Tasting Weekends

Wine tasting weekends happen all summer long.  The major dates are the holidays already mentioned, but any weekend during the summer wine tasting season is a good weekend to take a wine tour.  Some wine tasting ideas are:

• Stay at a wine country inn or take a vineyard vacation
• Put together a wine tasting dinner at a favorite restaurant
• Get together with friends and share a wine appreciation course
• Host a wine tasting event in your home
• Take a Temecula wine tour or a Napa Valley wine tour
• Take a road trip and visit a wine region you are not familiar with, many have published wine maps to help you route your trip

 

Wine Tasting Glasses

There are all types of glasses for drinking wine from.  Generally speaking, when you take a wine tasting tour, you will not be drinking from Riedal wine glassses unless you take your own.  Drinking from the proper type of wine glass will help enhance your experience.  If you are taking a wine tasting tour, wine glasses are provided, but if you are putting together your own wine tasting at home, you might want to invest in some of the following:

• A Riedal wine glass; Riedel wine glasses are the premium wine glass to drink from, they have been engineered to place the wine at the proper place on your palate to bring out the flavors of the wine.
• Waterford Crystal wine glasses ; another luxurious experience for some upper crust wine tasting
• Crystal wine glasses, they do not have to be Waterford
• Acrylic wine glasses; too thick for my taste, but some people prefer them
• Personalized wine glasses; great idea for a wine club gathering
• Stemless wine glasses, some people prefer not stems, they are less delicate and more dishwasher friendly
• All Purpose Cheap wine glasses if you are hosting a wine tasting that may become a little rowdy
• Plastic wine glasses if you hosting a wine party that may become a lot rowdy, a plastic wine glass won't break
• Plastic Champagne flutes or plastic Champagne glasses , great for a New Years Eve Party, but go for the real thing if you are drinking an expensive Champagne.
• Wine Glass Charms , so people can keep their glasses straight

 

Wine Tasting Tips: How to Host A Wine Tasting Party!

One thing you'll want to do when thinking about hosting a wine tasting party, is to decide, will it be something informal with just some simple wine tasting food like cheese and crackers, or will you go all out and have a wine tasting dinner? If you love to cook, the dinner may be the way to go, and you can really have some fun pairing up your wine with your food.

If you go this route you want to make sure that you start your dinner off with something light, and pair with a white wine. As your dinner progresses, your foods get heavier, as does your wine. You could end your wine tasting dinner with a scrumptious dessert, and a sweet dessert wine. This is a great way to spend a fun filled evening with an intimate group of friends, drinking wine the way it was meant to be drank, with food.

A lot of people if they are doing wine tasting at home will not want to go to the expense and work of having a wine tasting dinner. They want to go with something a lot more informal, and just having a few friends over and tastings of wines. If you would like to host a wine tasting like this, you don't really need a lot of preparation. All you would really need to do is set yourself up a wine tasting table, grab a few bottles of wine, and throw out some crackers and cheese to help clear the palate between the tastings.

A lot of times people think that in order to have a home wine tasting, you need to go to your local college and take some wine tasting classes before you post a wine tasting party. That is so far from the truth that it is laughable.

Wine tasting accessories

There are all kinds of accessories that you can use for your wine tasting party. Although they are not necessary, they sometimes add to the learning experience of the party, or sometimes they're just plain fun. There is wine tasting software on the market, as well as other accessories such as a wine tasting journal, a Wine Tasting Notebook , or a wine tasting sheet, which are basically all the same things. They're just some kind of stationery that you can use to jot down your wine tasting notes.

 

You could set out some wine tasting cards for people to jot their notes on, and if you wanted to be helpful and provide a learning experience, you could get the cards that have Wine Tasting Terms printed on them. Wine tasting terms would be terms such as dry wine, fruity, excellent bouquet, nose, and finish. There is really no need for this, it's not as if you are going to be writing a wine review for your local newspaper, but again, it can add to the fun.  And above all else, a wine tasting party should be fun

If you're going to host a party, there is a wine tasting game that you could play. It is pretty simple to set up, you simply take your bottles of wine and put them in a brown paper bag. Secure the bag around the neck with a rubber band or a piece of ribbon, and let everyone do their tasting without looking at the label on the bottle. What this does is take away people's preconceived notions that they have by looking at the wine label.

Then when everyone has tasted, you could all compare your wine tasting cards, and compare notes. This is kind of a fun wine tasting game to play when you are part of a wine club, where members meet on a regular basis to try out different wines. The person who is hosting the wine tasting party is sometimes responsible for obtaining a bottle of wine as a gift for the person who brings the wine that ends up with the most votes at the end of the evening.

What I really like about this wine tasting game is first of all, doing away with the preconceived notions of the wine label, but secondly, finding out what other people write in their notes. It is never the same thing that I write in mine. Where I may taste black cherries, another person's palate may pick up the oak flavoring. And of course, if there is any wine in the bottle left at the end of comparing notes it's always a great idea to go back and re-taste the wine after comparing everyone's notes.

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