How To Host A Wine Tasting Party

Why not host a wine tasting party? It's a fun way to act as a sommelier for your friends and family and try different types of wines that you may not have ever tried before. Here's a quick guide to help inspire your next wine tasting party.

Choosing Your Wines

If you're planning a California wine country soirée, it is a good idea to pick wines of one particular region. This is a great way to learn more about regional California wines. For instance, try picking wines from the Suisun Valley region, or perhaps the Napa Valley or Sonoma regions. This way, you and your guests can learn more about one particular culture of wine.

If you're not really a wine connoisseur, I recommend picking 2 white wines and 3 red wines of your choice for you and your friends to sample. If you'd like, you can even throw in a dessert wine, rosé, or champagne ('cause wine not?). You could also consider looking into unique local wines if there are any in your area. Even if you really don't know anything about wine, you can still host a fun tasting party that is less educational and more sociable. You can even opt to encourage your guests to bring a bottle of their favorite wine and have a wine potluck!

Try Pairing Your Wines With Hors D'oeuvres

To make a wine tasting party more fun, put out a cheese board or charcuterie board that your guests can sample while tasting different wines. If you are knowledgeable regarding pairing wines with food, then use this knowledge to educate your guests on how particular wines pair with certain foods. Otherwise, providing hors d'oeuvres to accompany your wine flight is still fun for you and your guests, as you can make up your own pairings and decide what you each think pairs best with the different wines.

You can also use a cheese board or antipasto platter as an opportunity to tie together the theme of your wine tasting. Try using a slate cheeseboard or small tags that you can write the names of the cheeses on. Also, add other pairings such as fruit, nuts, bread, crackers, and jams that your guests can sample along with their wine tasting.

Start With White Wines and Begin Tasting

When you begin pouring wines for the tasting, start with white wine, then rosé, then move to the reds. Red wines have tannins that can alter the taste of lighter wines when tasted first. Encourage your friends to swirl the wine in the glass and note the scent of the wine before tasting. Have your guests hold the glass up to a white surface so they can note the color of the wine. Then, have them taste the wine. This standard process of wine tasting is part of the fun!

Think About Your Glassware

If you have the means, try serving each type of wine in its appropriate glass. The particular glassware that the wine is meant to be served in will enhance the taste and smell of the wine. If you don't have room for this in your budget or you don't have space in your house for different glasses, that's OK! Just rinse out each wine glass every time you serve a different type of wine. You can even provide a dump bucket for your guests if you think they won't finish each tasting.

A wine tasting party is a fun idea for any serious wine connoisseurs, or people who want to recreate a day in Napa Valley without the crowds or high prices. Whatever the reason or occasion, a wine tasting party is a fun way to learn more about wine and have fun introducing your friends to wines they may not have tried before. It can be sociable, educational, or a little bit of both! Bonne journée!

Cheers! -Lauren