Hosting a wine tasting evening
Whether you are a new wine lover or someone that has been around the block, attending a wine tasting is not only fun, but also a place where you can learn a thing or two. It also helps you to explore wine that you otherwise would not have bought and learn about styles or regions that are outside of your tasting zone. Social wine clubs give you and your fellow wine drinkers the opportunity to discuss and debate different wines, and when done right, leaves everyone a little bit wiser, all while having a great time
Setting up everything for your tasting is not a difficult task but before you start pouring a few glasses let’s look at four easy steps to make sure it is a success!
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Finding the right people
Ideally you’d like to have between six and twelve guests. This allows for a nice variety of wines to be brought to the wine tasting evening. The guests should at least have an interest in wine (what’s the point otherwise?) and ideally you all should live close to each other to avoid those pricy ubers. If you are less than six people, it could of course still work, but the number of new wines that you’ll get exposure to will be far less. Try to get a diverse group of people, white wine drinkers, red wine drinkers, novices and experts, this will help to get discussions flowing. Ultimately, get people who would like to learn and people who willing to share their knowledge.
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Choosing the venue
Unless you are a really big group, your house or apartment should be just fine for your wine tasting evening. Get each person bring two wine glasses – there’s no need for you have 20 glasses at home and it helps with the dishes afterwards! The reason I’m suggesting two glasses, is because it allows you to pour two wines at once to compare and contrast. Your venue should have good lighting to see the colour of the wine and no additional scents from the potpourri you made last month – being able to smell your wine is important! It’s good to have some crackers and water available as palate cleansers between tasting helps guests enjoy between the different wines. Having notepads available for everyone is also very useful for your guests tojot down notes or record their favourite wines
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Themes
Ok, so you’ve got the people and you’ve got the right place, the only thing left is getting some wine! To make the evening interesting, you should select a theme for the wines that the people should bring. The theme can be something simple like, your favourite white wine or any wine below the R100 mark (be sure to check out our article on finding gems – great wines at an affordable price.) Or you can have a more advanced theme like focusing on a specific grape, like Pinotage, or a specific region, like Robertson. There are really no rules here! Allow each person to tell a short story about the wine, covering the basics such as the producer, grape variety, region and vintage. All you want is to have a common thread in all the wines, so that you can compare to seek out both the similarities and differences and hopefully find something new to enjoy!
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To see or not to see
At the beginning of evening, you need to decide whether this is going to be a blind tasting or not. A blind tasting is when you cover up all the wines, so that the guests do not know what they are having – this takes away any prejudice. At the end of the tasting, all the wines get revealed (people are usually shocked to see what wines they enjoyed most!). Whether to do a blind tasting is totally up to you and your guests. I found that with people who are new to wine, that blind tastings aren’t that useful. When you are still learning about wine it’s often best to see and understand what you drinking. If you are looking for a bit of a challenge, do try the blind tasting option! See if you can guess things like cultivar, region or even vintage.
With these four steps you should be able to easily host your own wine tasting. Remember to relax and enjoy the evening, your wine tasting should be fun and a place for everyone to learn more about the new wines they are enjoying responsibly.
