Wine tasting at home can turn into a real fiesta if you know how to get things going. The joy of having a home party is immensely satisfying, and you can choose to either keep things simple or step up and elaborate as you wish.
Your friends and party attendants’ personality will set the tone, but you can make things a lot more interesting if you toss a few fantastic activities in there. One of those activities should be wine tasting. Hosting a wine tasting party can be all about learning more about the tremendous and centuries-long culture of wine.
On the other hand, if you consider yourself to be avid and versed in wine, a wine tasting party can also add a competitive element to your home party. However you take it, these tips will help you organize a fantastic wine tasting social gathering with something a little more than just your Sangria bottle.
1. Know Your Guests
The wines you plan on serving will depend on your guests. We recommend that you let your guests know about the wines you plan on tasting so that they can prepare themselves.
Make sure your guests know that you plan on hosting a wine enjoyment party and a casual evening of fine conversation so that your people know what they can expect.
They will be more relaxed if they know what you have in mind. Tell your guests to come with a good-hearted competitive spirit as different people enjoy the wine atmosphere differently.
2. Choose Your Wines Carefully
When choosing your wines, there are three essential things to keep in mind – variety, region, and style. Your guests should know about it if you plan on serving various Petite Pearls or Marquette’s, or La Crescent.
It will help you establish what they can try and taste. To make things interesting, you can ask your friends to try and guess the region from which that specific wine may have come from.
You can also use the elements of gamification and tell your guests that you’ll be serving wines from Argentina or Washington Valley so that some of them may even find a new favorite region with the best wines around.
When it comes to style, you have different options:
- Light or full-bodied
- Specialty or dessert
- Rose, white, red
- Sweet or dry
3. Prepare All the Necessities
You can’t have a wine tasting party at home without the proper wine glasses. Each wine has its own glass, and you should pay special attention to these small but crucial details. If you’re serving red wines, almost any wine glass will work.
Roses and whites require stemmed glasses to avoid temperature rises and hand contact. Sparkling wines require a flute glass to properly accentuate the pop and sparkle with every sip.
4. Prepare Foods to Serve at Your Party
Toss in some nice snacks and foods to complement your wine-tasting effort. Here are some fantastic food options that go amazingly well with wine tasting. Be careful when choosing foods as your snacks shouldn’t overpower the wine but complement it.
You can always include some general foods that go well with wine, such as light meat, crackers, and fine cheese. Full-bodied and heavy wines require more flavor and taste, while light wines require light foods.
5. Make Sure You Serve Your Wines Properly
There is this unwritten rule to serve wines from dry to sweet. We recommend that you start with light and sparkling wines and then proceed with whites and roses only to finish with reds. You can also conclude with a dessert wine or a smooth port if your guests are feeling up to it.
Each pour should be about 1-2 ounces. Remember, this is a wine tasting party, not a drinking competition. People are supposed to have a good time, not end up throwing up with a headache and a hangover.
6. Keep Your Party Taste Oriented
Since wines have a strong taste, make an effort to encourage your guests to have some food and water in between tasting sessions to cleanse their palates. It will help them increase their enjoyment of flavor and taste and avoid getting drunk.
You can also turn it into a game by encouraging your guests to express their impressions about each wine they’ve tasted by pointing to anything that stands out, tasting notes, flavor profiles, and more. Wine tasting can be so much fun if all your guests are on the same page.
If you have avid wine lovers among your friends, a wine tasting party could help them discover a hidden gem and more.
7. A Few Things to Avoid
Avoid scented candles as their scents will compete and even suffocate the aromas you’ll want your guests to experience from the wines you plan on serving.
You should also stay away from crowded spaces as they tend to make people uncomfortable, especially if they are new to this whole wine-tasting thing.
Since you want your guests to enjoy every aspect of your party, you should do everything you can to make things and the entire experience more comfortable and enjoyable.
Conclusion
You have everything ready for having a blast of a party. Prepare your wines, watch out for the perfect serving temperatures, prepare your glasses and foods, create a groovy party music list and let the good times roll.
